How to select the right lavender for your garden

There are over 250 varieties of English Lavender!

When considering which lavenders would suit your garden situation, you need to think about:

Soil type/Position /Importance of colour/Importance of fragrance/Space available/Desired effect – formal or informal

SOIL

The most important part of growing lavender is to have well drained soil, ideally lime, gravel or chalk. If you have a clay soil, you can add sand and gravel and feed them with lime regularly to help your plants thrive.

POSITION

Lavenders love sun and will not flower if grown in constant shade. A south-facing sunny position is lavender’s favourite place. Plant them from late April through the summer months. Be sure to keep an eye on water, especially during the first year. Smaller plants generally take better and grow faster in the first couple of years.

PLANTING

Thoroughly water the plants. Dig the hole slightly deeper than the plant’s pot. Pour in a bucket of water and allow it to soak away. Plant just deep enough to allow a thin covering of soil over the top of the compost . This will aid moisture retention. Firm gently ensuring there is no depression next to the plant where water could gather.

SPACING

For english lavender hedges: 30-40cm apart (12”-15”) dependent upon size. Tall lavender (60cm+) should be planted 40-50cm apart(15”-16”)

For informal planting: 45-90cm apart (18”-36”).

English Lavenders do look particularly striking when planted in groups of 3!

CONTAINERS

Both french and english lavenders enjoy being grown in pots or hanging baskets. Do not fill with normal compost, just add soil and pieces of broken pot or gravel to aid drainage. This is the ideal way to grow French lavenders (stoechas) as, generally, they are not as hardy as English (angustifolia) lavenders. Later in the year the container can be moved next to a house wall to protect them from frost.

WATERING

Once established, this should be unnecessary except in very dry conditions, when for a few weeks an occasional light watering may be required. Plants in containers need to be watered throughout the summer months.

FEEDING

Feed your lavenders once a season with a little potash around the base of plants. This will encourage flowering and also improve the flower colour.

PRUNING

Hardy lavenders are best cut down to the old wood in August or when the lavender has finished flowering. This allows the plant to heal before the frost. If you grow French lavender, prune hard after the first flowering (to 9”). Thereafter, dead head the lavender throughout the season.

LIFE OF A LAVENDER

Typically, you can expect 8 to 10 years of pleasure from your lavender – as long as you abide by the golden rules of:

  • Soil type
  • Position
  • Pruning Feeding

 

MAIN VARIETIES WE GROW ON THE FARM

Folgate — an early flowering variety, grown for its vbrant colour, and for the quality of the Lavender oil it produces.

Imperial Gem — a neat, compact variety of deep blue colour, grown for cutting and bunching

Maillette — the “queen” of the angustifolia lavenders . Very highly scented , producing high quality Lavender oil.

Grosso — an “intermedia” lavender, producing a high quantity of Lavandin Oil (high in camphor)

 

We also grow other english varieties, for display, such as Hidcote, Miss Katherine, Blue Ryder and Edelweiss.

At our farm shop we sell a wide selection of lavenders from late Spring.  Please call us on 01420 511146 or email: info@thelavenderfields.co.uk for further information.

Please note, that at present we are unable to offer a plant mail order service – it is collection only from our farm shop. Thank you.

Continue