Lavender

Lavender Plants

We stock a wide selection of Garden Lavender plants including the best of both the old and new varieties. The flowers of these beautifully scented evergreen shrubs are very popular with all kinds of pollinating insects, they are an integral part of any ‘English’ garden. Use them in sunny beds and borders or in containers, all varieties may be clipped to create a decorative low edging. You may also be interested in our range of the most popular varieties used for Lavender Hedging.

We stock a wide slection of Lavender plants in three main types:

 Lavender Angustifolia is the English or True Lavender. This family of Lavender plants is home to most of the popular and best loved varieties seen so often in UK gardens. They are typically compact with narrow grey-green foliage that accounts for about half of the plants height – the other half is composed of the sturdy and compact flower spikes that emerge during June and July, cylindrical in shape and available in a wide range of richly coloured (and complementary) shades from blue and purple through to pink and white.

Angustifolia Lavender Plants are tough and hardy to at least -15C, just be sure to plant them somewhere sunny and well drained and the plants should take everything that the British weather throws at them in their stride. For best results and to extend the life of your Lavender plants, give them a good trim as soon as the flowers fade (back to the very base of the flower stems, just into the foliage). This will keep them compact and bushy for many years.

All our Angustifolia Lavender plants are wonderfully scented, both the flowers and foliage. Not only are they beautiful additions to the garden whether solitary plants or in groups, they are all suitable for clipping.

Lavender Angustifolia is also suitable for culinary uses, its sweet Lavender scent is just the thing to flavour salads and in desserts, for infusions and teas and in baking recipes. Use the flowers for pot-pourri or drying, so that their unmistakable scent can be enjoyed in the home long after the flowering season has finished.

Lavender Intermedia (a hybrid between Lavender Angustifolia and L. latifolia). These varieties tend to be taller and stronger than the more compact ‘English’ Lavender plants, they flower later during July and August (and often beyond, well into Autumn) and so are perfect for extending the flowering season and keeping the Summer display going in your garden. The leaves of Intermedia Lavenders tend to be larger and wider, simply because the plants are stronger and taller giving them a good deal of presence in the garden, especially when in flower.

Intermedia Lavenders are unsurpassed for their scent, the flowers are borne on long, strong stems making them perfect for cutting and drying, being very prolific with their flowers they are amongst the most commonly used types for commercial pot-pourri and lavender oil production.

Intermedia Lavender Plants are tough and hardy to at least -15C, just be sure to plant them somewhere sunny and well drained and the plants should take everything that the British weather throws at them in their stride. For best results and to extend the life of your Lavender plants, give them a good trim as soon as the flowers fade (back to the very base of the flower stems, just into the foliage). This will keep them compact and bushy for many years

Lavender Stoechas is the French or Spanish Lavender. These Lavender plants all have more showy and unique flower heads with bracts or ‘ears’ on top. Not only do they make stunning garden plants, the flowers emerge significantly earlier that the traditional English varieties sometimes as early as late April. If the Lavender plants are kept deadheaded, they will usually continue to flower through until September.

Stoechas Lavenders look great as solitary plants or in small groups in a sunny, well drained flower bed. They are also great in containers on a sunny terrace where their sweet honey-like scent can be appreciated or they could be clipped to border a sunny path or flower bed

These lovely plants aren’t quite as hardy as their angustifolia and intermedia cousins, but they will certainly take -5C and probably more. The most important thing with these and all lavender plants is to plant in well-drained soil (they hail from the Mediterranean regions), few lavenders are killed by frost, but many are lost because of wet boggy soil.

The intriguing flowers are edible and sweet to the taste, what a wonderful addition to salads and desserts if you can bear to pick them!