As I voraciously bought plants to fill up my first garden in this glorious grow-all-year-round California climate, somehow a lavender plant found its way home with me. It was Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas) with gray spiky leaves that look and smell a little like rosemary. But the fascinating part was the flowers, which sat high up on the spikes and resembled tiny square purple pineapples with rabbit ears on top.
That lavender thrived in my garden, producing its unusual looking flowers almost year-round. After a year of watching the striking purple beauty show off, through rain storms and cool weather and hot sun, I was hooked!
Lavender comes from the Latin word lavare, meaning to wash, which may be related to its early use for medicinal purposes. Soldiers in ancient Rome bathed in lavender-scented water as they headed off to battle. In World War I, wounds were bathed with antiseptic lavender washes. Today, lavender scent is believed to have stress relieving properties and is recommended by herbalists and aromatherapists for insomnia and tension headache problems.
Native to the Mediterranean, lavenders love lots of sun and well-drained soil. Although they prefer to be quite dry before being watered, you’ll need to monitor them in pots so they don’t dry out completely. If they do get too dry, the flower heads will hang down limply, but they can usually be revived easily with water, as long as you don’t let them go too long. They need little or no fertilizer.
There are several varieties of lavender besides L. stoechas:
English lavender (Lavendula angustifolia). This is the quintessential English cottage garden lavender, seen in pots, parterres and potagers. In spite of its name, it is not native to England but rather to the mountains of southern Europe. ‘Hidcote’, with short, silver green leaves and dark purple flowers, is compact, growing only 1 to1½ feet tall. Highly fragrant, it is used to make perfumes. ‘Munstead’ is another highly scented, compact variety. Both hold their color well when dried.
French lavender (L. dentata). Also called fringed lavender, it has green or gray-green toothed leaves and bushy purple flower spikes. Grows to about 3 feet and blooms from spring through summer and almost non-stop in temperate climates.
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