Growing Lavender

Lovely lavender in the garden.

I always wanted to grow lavender, but my gardens on Long Island were too shady and humid to grow it successfully. Here in Virginia, I have full sun and long, hot summers, perfect for lavender. I've got three types of lavender growing in the gardens: Hidcote, Munstead, and Spanish lavender. The Spanish lavender looks nearly identical to Munstead.

I started my lavender from seeds. I bought a collection from Parks that had three types in it, but only the Munstead and Hidcote survived....and thrived!  The lavender have grown so big that I've had to trim some and divide others. It's gotten to the point that gardening friends who visit leave with a few Gaillardia and lavender plants tucked into plastic shopping bags. Their cars must smell like Bed, Bath and Beyond by the time they get home.

Lavender is one of my favorite plants to grow in our hot, sunny, sometimes zone 7 sometimes zone 6 yard.  It's tough and survives drought. It survives Shadow, who often chooses to lay on the lavender border in the rose garden when I'm out weeding. At least she smells better when she gets up thanks to all the crushed lavender underneath her.

I've got lavender growing around the perimeter of the rose bed. I love how the purple flowers blend with the mostly pink roses, and the scent rising from that garden on a hot summer day is enough to make a perfumer swoon.  I also have them growing in the island bed which sits in the middle of the front yard.  Lavender and three different colors of Echinacea form a border around other perennials including peonies, iris, daylilies, yellow and white daisies, Crepe Myrtle, Snowball Viburnum and a crab apple tree.

This year I had to dig up some lavender from the rose beds to make room for the arbor.  I just plunked it down into a hole dug among the invasive pink Missouri primrose, tamped it down, and forgot I'd moved it. Today I checked it, and you know what? It's thriving.  Talk about tough.

I like to snip off the flower heads and dry them in an old pie plate or a big metal roasting pan in the sun. I store them in a Mason jar with one of the silica gel packages you get with your new shoes - the silica gel removes any remaining moisture.  I make small counted cross stitch bags with flowers on them and tuck fresh dried lavender into the bags, as well as use it as a potpourri throughout the house. 

Do you grow lavender? I love it. It's one of the best and most useful perennials in the garden.

Lavender. I grew it from seed.