Growing Lavender Successfully

[Guest guest]

Growing Lavender Successfully

 

----

----------

 

 

 

I really like the smell of lavender and this may be partially

explained by the usually reliable source that says there are two

smells that elicit the greatest sexual response from the average

male.

 

The first is the smell of freshly baked chocolate doughnuts and the

second, the herbal fragrance of lavender.

 

While I'll pass on making any editorial comments on the truth of

either these bits of research flotsam and hope you'll do the same, I

will pass along some hints on the successful growing of my favourite

herb plant. The word lavender indicates its historical use in

cosmetics and toiletry because the Latin word `lavo' means to wash.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were heavy users of Lavender so the

sweet fragrance and appeal of this plant is obviously not a recent

discovery.

 

And as there is no secret to the name of the plant, there are no

secrets to the successful culture of this perennial herb. Full hot

sun is the first ingredient in the recipe and this is a plant that

thrives in the hottest part of my garden.

 

Excellent drainage is another ingredient in the recipe because any

excessive wetness around the roots will lead to root rot. It is for

this reason that growing lavenders on clay is not recommended. If you

have clay soils, grow this plant in a container or in a raised bed

with sandy soils in the raised bed.

 

The plants should be spaced on 18 inch centres to give them expansion

room.

 

The recipe is complete with a shovel of compost spread around the

plant in early spring and yearly spring pruning to remove all the

winter-killed branches. Over feeding leads to soft growth and poor

fragrance; you have to be tough on this plant and serious growers

will eliminate even the single shovel of compost.

 

www.gardening-tips.org

Spring pruning encourages thicker growth and more flower production

so do trim the plant in the early spring just when the buds start to

swell on the stems.

 

While lavender is relatively easy to start from seed, named varieties

do not come true from seed so the better varieties are always

propagated from tender cuttings. And propagate them we do because

this is one of the longest blooming plants in the garden; if

deadheaded, Lavender will continue to produce flowers in a range of

blues, violets, pinks and whites from mid summer right up until a

hard frost.

 

And speaking of frost, commercial growers find that a plant lasts

approximately 5 years before it starts to " run out " and decline in

health. They take cuttings and propagate the plant so that there are

always new ones coming along to replace those that die. Some garden

experts say that you can expect a garden plant to last up to 10 years

before it starts to die. Mine have tended towards the five or six

year mark but that is hard to say whether it is winter doing the

killing or simply the plant getting weaker, or even a combination of

the two factors. While there are essentially two lavender families

grown in most gardens, (French and English) the tender French forms

are not hardy for me (they need a zone 6 or 7) and I have been

disappointed every time I tried to overwinter them outdoors.

 

The English lavenders on the other hand have returned my enthusiasm

by growing and self-sowing in the garden without a care for winter

cold. A hybrid form known as Lavender x intermedia or Lavendin is

marginally hardy here and I tend to either heavily mulch it or grow

it in containers for wintering in a cold frame.

 

L. angustifolia is the classic English lavender plant and there are

some wonderfully hardy and heavy blooming plants on the market. Look

for `Blue Cushion', at 12 to 18 inches tall, its deep blue-violet

flowers are held above a compact mounding plant, `Jean Davis' is 18

inches tall with pale pink flowers and marginally hardy in my

garden. `Lavender Lady' is a mid-lavender blue and blooms first year

from seed. `Lavender Lady' is one of the few lavenders that will come

true from seed. `Loddon Blue' is a more compact grower than `Hidcote'

at 18 inches tall but the flower color and form is a comparable deep

violet. This brings me to the observation that both `Hidcote'

and `Munstead' are now seed generated in the nursery trade and as

they don't breed true, the plants you'll likely obtain from your

local nursery only superficially resemble the original plant.

 

 

The Lavender x intermedia plants are hybrids between L. angustifolia

and L. latifolia and while all are tender, they are wonderful plants.

Their tenderness has not stopped me from growing them by any means

possible. `Grosso' has deep violet blooms on a thickly branched

plant. It is one of the most fragrant and is the main variety used in

commercial production in both France and the USA `Hidcote Giant'

grows to 24 inches tall with deep rich purple flowers. It has a more

open, coarse growth habit and requires regular and heavy pruning to

keep it looking attractive. My favourite in this class is `Provence'.

It grows to 24 inches tall and has dark purple flowers. I fell in

love with the fragrance of this variety when I saw and smelled it in

France. `Twickel Purple' (aka `Twinkles'or `Twickes') is also 24

inches tall but it has broad flat leaves flushed purple in winter. It

needs heavy pruning after blooming to thicken it up otherwise it can

become leggy. It has deep purple flowers and is another of my

favourites. It has the distinction of being used most often in

cooking and candy making.

 

And by the way, chocolate doughnuts are a poor second.:-)