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Why we all love lavender
Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly, lavender’s green,
When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen.
This 17th century folk song may not make a great deal of sense to us nowadays but lavender is still one of our most popular summer flowering shrubs. With spires of scented blue, purple, pink or white flowers and aromatic foliage, it copes well with dry conditions, is evergreen and a favourite with pollinators. One of its virtues is its versatility. Often found in formal, cottage and wildlife gardens, it’s equally at home in gravel gardens and pots or raised urns and, planted in groups, makes a stunning low, flowering hedge along the edge of a sunny border or on either side of a path.
Not merely a decorative plant, it has also been used for millennia for medicinal purposes, in beauty products and for perfumes. (Hands up those of you of a certain age whose Granny doused her hankies with lavender water!) Lavender oil has been revered as something of a cure-all and is said to have antiseptic, anti-inflammatory and antifungal properties. It’s also reputed to be calming, reduce anxiety and induce sleep.
Nicholas Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, written, like the song, in the 17th century, described it as ‘… of a special good use for all the griefs and pains that proceed of a cold cause, as the apoplexy, falling sickness, the dropsy or sluggish malady…’ So if you happen to be suffering from any of those, lavender is your go to herb. It’s a fascinating book, with beautiful botanical illustrations, and you can view it here:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/49513/49513-h/49513-h.htm
Lavender even has a place in cookery. Queen Elizabeth 1st apparently enjoyed lavender conserve for breakfast, and today it’s used in baking and to flavour everything from teas, cocktails and vinegars to roast meat and ice cream.
Lavender in the garden
Lavenders need full sun and free-draining soil that’s relatively low in nutrients. So plant them in an open site and add a handful of grit to the planting hole unless your soil is fairly sandy.
They may struggle to survive in heavy clay soil, so it’s a good idea to plant in a pot if these are your gardening conditions. If you’re willing to risk it in the ground, dig a hole twice the size of the rootball, loosen the soil at the bottom and add two or three good handfuls of grit. Stir these into the soil at the bottom. Mix some grit in with the backfill soil too and water in.
If you’re planting in a pot, use terracotta if you can and fill with three parts peat-free John Innes number 2 or 3 compost with one part grit for preference. Don’t be tempted to cram your plant into a small pot – lavenders like some space for their roots to expand. Water after planting to help it establish, but when it comes to maintenance, bear in mind that they’re Mediterranean plants which like a dry-ish growing medium.
Varieties to grow
Classic English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is hardy down to about -15 degrees C as long as it doesn’t sit in the wet. Lavandula x intermedia are hybrid lavenders which look similar to English lavender, with the same hardiness. However, they’re generally larger and said to be better at dealing with wet conditions.
French lavender (Lavandula stoechas) looks rather different, with delicate wings at the top of each flower stem which are actually bracts. Its half-hardy so should be grown in a sheltered spot. Alternatively, plant it in a pot, which means you can control both water level and temperature by overwintering under cover. It’s shorter-lived but has a longer flowering period than L. angustifolia. It does seem to be a little temperamental though, wilting more readily than English lavender in drought conditions, especially in a pot.
Lavandula angustifolia ‘Munstead’ and ‘Hidcote’ are two of the best-known lavenders and should be easy to find. ‘Munstead’ has mid blueish-purple flowers and is named after plantswoman Gertrude Jekyll’s garden at Munstead Wood in Surrey. ‘Hidcote’ has deeper violet flowers and is named after Hidcote Garden in Gloucestershire. L. stoechas ‘Victory’ has violet flowers with paler bracts.
If you’d prefer something in tasteful light pink, L. angustifolia ‘Hidcote Pink’ or ‘Rosea’ are two of the best. Or for cool white, L. angustifolia ‘Arctic Snow’ or ‘Alba’.
Most, however, are purple, a colour that luckily seems to associate well with almost all others, with the possible exception of yellow. But even this can work well if you hit the right notes and incorporate plenty of green foliage to offset potential clashing.
Lavender flowers during the most vibrant months in the garden which makes it a great time to experiment with plant combinations. Try it with:
Lime: the frothy flowers of Alchemilla mollis or night-scented Nicotiana alata ‘Lime Green’ – loved by moths!
White: dramatic Leucanthemums (Shasta or ox-eye daisies) or the mini-trumpets of Agapanthus ‘Ever White’ – which is particularly happy in pots.
Orange: fiery Geum ‘Prinses Juliana’ or a daylily such as Hemerocallis fulva
Hot pink: spires of Veronica spicata ‘Bubblegum Candles’ or glorious Lychnis coronaria.
Pale pink: pincushion-flowered Astrantia major ‘Pink Sensation’ or shrub rose ‘Elizabeth’.
Red: flaming Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ or Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’.
Yellow: understated pale lemon Anthemis tinctoria ‘E.C. Buxton’ or sun yellow Helenium ‘Butterpat’ – if you’re feeling bold.
Pruning
Lavender can be pruned either in April or when flowering finishes. Half-hardy French lavenders should be cut back no later than early September or left until spring the following year. Mature plants can be cut back quite hard, as long as – and this is important – you only cut into green, leafy stems. Don’t chop into the woody growth nearer the base as this can be a life-ending event for the plant. For the first couple of years all that’s needed is to simply trim it just below the spent flower spikes. Pruning helps to maintain a nice neat rounded shape. Unpruned lavenders, or those that are simply deadheaded, can become straggly and woody after a while.
Make the most of it
Once you’ve established your lavender in the garden why not get the best out of it indoors too by drying a few sprigs and making a lavender bag? It will keep clothes deliciously fragrant and, more importantly, is said to repel the dreaded clothes moth!
Dry it first by tying the sprigs into smallish bundles and hanging them upside down in a warm, dry place with good air circulation. They should be ready in two to four weeks.
Then follow these instructions:
https://greenandheath.co.uk/blogs/news/make-your-own-lavender-bag-free-pattern-and-instructions
Lavender shortbread may be an acquired taste but the plant itself is almost universally adored. If there’s a sunny space in your garden, or on your front step or balcony, this beautiful and versatile shrub is well worth consideration.
I have tried many times to grow Lavender, but it never seems to survive for long! I gave up planting them in the border, as we have trouble with foxes digging up plants, and maybe the soil is not suitable. But even in pots they start to flower, then before the flowers come out, they begin to look miserable, the flowers don’t mature, and eventually they go brown and die…. It seems to make little difference how much I water them. I have persisted in trying, as I do love Lavender (we go to the Carshalton Lavender fields most years to pick it for Lavender bags, as a moth deterrent), so I would love to succeed. Some neighbours have large Lavender bushes, so it can survive in our area! What am I doing wrong? The label on the most recent ones says to water and feed about every 2 weeks, but I’ve always understood they don’t like too much water, nor rich soil, so do they want feeding? I have just repotted the newest plants in bigger pots with even more grit than previously, but would welcome tips in the hopes these ones might survive long-term! Thanks.