A Love Affair with Lavender
By Barbara Perry Lawton

Revered by ancient herbalists and cooks, lavender is a delightful addition to modern gardens and kitchens.

There is something magical about lavender (Lavandula spp.). Perhaps it’s the fragrance that has permeated so many parts of our lives over the centuries. Perhaps it’s the year-round appeal of the tidy gray-green foliage. Perhaps it’s the bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects the flowers attract to the garden. Perhaps it’s the herb’s long history of association with humankind (see sidebar on page 21). Or maybe it’s the combination of all these factors. All I know is that I can’t get enough of lavender in my garden and in my home.

Genus Overview

Depending on which taxonomist you consult, there are between 20 and 40 species of lavender in the genus Lavandula. The plants hybridize readily with each other, however, and the nomenclature, as you will read a little later, is a bit of a minefield. Native to the Mediterranean region through to some Atlantic islands, northern Africa, western Asia, and India, the genus consists of small evergreen (or evergray, to be more precise) shrubs or shrublike perennials bearing foliage and flowers that are singularly fragrant.

As members of the mint family ( Lamiaceae), lavender has paired leaves that are equal and opposite, as well as the square stems characteristic of the family. Lavender leaves may be simple and entire or dentate (toothed) to dissected or pinnate. The two-lipped flowers appear in summer on whorled spikes that rise above the foliage on terminal growth. Flowers come in shades of blue, lavender, purple, pink, or white. Lavender oil, often used in commercial products, is produced in the greatest quantities beginning when the flowers are about half open and continuing into the late stages of bloom.

Species and Selections

A number of lavenders are quite hardy, growing in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 9; other tender species are cultivated primarily as annuals in cold-winter regions. As a genus, lavender is quite heat and drought tolerant; many species thrive in hot, dry regions such as Texas and central California.

English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) is far and away the most commonly grown species in American gardens. There are many cultivars of English lavender, generally distinguished by height (anywhere from eight inches to two feet tall) and flower colors, which range from white to pink, dark violet, and blue. Most cultivars are hardy in USDA Zones 6 to 9.

‘Hidcote’, a well-known English lavender, is a favorite of June Hutson, horticulturist at the Kemper Home Demonstration Gardens of the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. “It seems to thrive in our midwestern climate when others go on to greener pastures,” she says, “and combines well with other plants that want minimum irrigation in the summer.”

The lavandins (L. 5intermedia), also known as hedge lavender, are sterile hybrids of English lavender and spike lavender (L. latifolia) that are noted for their pleasant fragrance and vigorous, shrubby growth habit. Larger (growing two to four feet tall) and more heat tolerant than English lavender, the lavandins produce more essential oil per plant than other lavenders and are thus the source of most commercial lavender oil. Most selections, with the exception of ‘Edelweiss’, have pale purple flowers.

Personally, I am especially fond of ‘Grosso’ (sometimes listed as ‘Fat Spike’), a lavandin selection hardy in Zones 5 to 10. It has good gray year-round foliage and long-stemmed flower spikes that are excellent for craft projects. Even in the demanding climate of St. Louis, Missouri, where I live, the frigid weather, droughts, and other vagaries don’t faze it a bit.

Spanish lavender (L. stoechas), sometimes referred to as French or Italian lavender because it grows wild in those countries, can be grown year-round in Texas, California, and parts of the Pacific Northwest. Since it’s reliably hardy only to USDA Zone 8, gardeners in the East and Midwest are better served by treating it as a summer annual. The flowers are composed of conelike spikes of dark purple flowers, topped by a jaunty plume of contrastingly colored petallike bracts. These odd-looking sterile bracts have given rise to common names such as rabbit ear or papillon (butterfly) lavender.

Lavenders in the Landscape

Lavender doesn’t need to be confined to a kitchen or herb garden—it is wonderful in the ornamental garden, where savvy gardeners are using it to edge formal beds, in mixed gardens, along drives and walkways, and in containers that can bring handsome definition to patios and terraces. And it is a must-have plant for the butterfly or wildlife garden, attracting bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. An additional virtue is that lavender is deer resistant.

Lavender makes terrific low hedges, but a drawback is that if individual plants are damaged by dogs or stray soccer balls, it creates a gap for a year or two until new plants can fill in. “If you are installing a hedge of lavender, buy two or three extra plants and place them in the back of the garden somewhere,” suggests Ellen Spector Platt, who runs Meadowlark Flower & Herb Farm in Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania. “They’ll grow at about the same rate as your hedge plants, so you can use them to fill holes in the hedge.”

Barbara Perry Lawton is an award-winning author of more than 10 gardening books. She lives in Valley Park, Missouri.

Photo credit: ‘Hidcote’ lavender by Donna Krischan

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