How to grow lavender and the best varieties to plant now
Lavender creates its own summer heat haze and the flowers attract bees and butterflies galore, because aromatic plants produce nectar that's packed with a concentrated mixture of sugars. This mainly Mediterranean subshrub has been grown here since Roman times, although it does need a sunny site and good drainage. Once established, lavenders are drought-tolerant, but they do need watering after planting because they rely on developing deep root systems. That can take a growing season, so it's always best to plant them in spring and early summer, if possible. Gardeners get confused about when and how to prune them and that depends on hardiness and flowering times, so it's sensible to subdivide them into these three groups.
English or true lavender
Lavandula angustifolia
These shorter, upright lavenders are the hardiest of all and they will survive cold winters in well-drained positions. They have grey-green narrow foliage and blunt-topped, fragrant cylindrical flowers in lilacs and purples in midsummer. They make perfect hedging and edging plants and they can live for 20 years if they're pruned every year. Cut them back to 9in (22cm) after flowering in early to mid-August. This encourages new growth within weeks and protects them over winter. If you fail to prune them, they will become leggy and die.
English lavenders to try
'Hidcote' AGM
Deep-purple flowers, held above grey foliage, make this one the eye-catching choice for hedging. Found at the National Trust's Hidcote Manor in Gloucestershire, it was probably planted by the garden's creator Lawrence Johnston and it's thought that he brought it back from France in the 1920s. 20in/50cm.
'Beechwood Blue' AGM
Another 1920s lavender, this one from William Wood's Beechwood Nurseries in Buckinghamshire. It's a compact mound-former with masses of deep violet-blue flowers held above grey-green foliage. As it is less upright, it forms an informal hedge. 24in/60cm.
'Ashdown Forest'
A paler, later-flowering lavender with mid-violet flowers held above greener foliage. Discovered in the 1980s, in a garden at Nutley in East Sussex, it's a perfect hedging lavender in a softer shade. 20in/50cm.
'Folgate' AGM
A bushy and bluer lavender, with a touch of the Aegean Sea, and the flowers are enhanced by sage-green foliage. Named after a long-gone Norfolk nursery. Norfolk Lavender has the correct plant and it's a stunner once evening light descends. 24in/60cm.
'Melissa Lilac'
This produces a soft haze of paler lavender flowers, with larger florets than normal, and woollier foliage. It was launched by the Downderry Nursery at Chelsea 2003, whose owners described it as 'a real marshmallow'. I staggered away with a very large potful at the Chelsea sell-off that year. 28in/70cm.
Growing tips for L. angustifolia:
If you want to dry the flowers, pick them during early July and hang them upside down.
Hard pruning encourages new growth – just look for the new shoots at the base and cut back to those.
You can delay flowering by trimming back half the plant in April or May.
Lavandins
Lavandula x intermedia
These are hybrids between hardy English lavenders, L. angustifolia, and the less-hardy spike lavenders, L. latifolia. Lavandins can survive down to -10C in well-drained soil, but they need a gentler pruning regime because they're not as hardy as English lavender. You can shape them in September, by just cutting into the foliage, or you can prune them in spring by going back to the new shoots nearer the base. They can last 10 years or more when correctly pruned, but eventually they lose vigour and develop ugly woody legs. These effusive billowing plants have slender tapering flowers, held on radiating stems, so they are best grown as single specimens because many are a little too floppy and expansive for hedging. New ones are cropping up, because lavandins are grown commercially for their oil. In the garden, lavandins provide good winter silhouettes and they can be shaped into roundels.
Lavandins to try
'Grosso'
This is widely grown commercially in the fields of Provence and the UK, for its camphorous oil. 'Grosso' is unique due to having bright-green foliage and deep-purple flowers, so it's not as soft on the eye as some. It was discovered by farmer Pierre Grosso in 1972 and yields lots of oil. 3x3ft/90x90cm.
'Phenomenal'
A newer earlier flowering lavandin with stronger stems topped by violet-blue spikes held above silvery foliage. Hardier than many. 30x30in/75x75cm.
'Heavenly Scent'
Raised from a new British breeding programme for commercial oil production, this is highly aromatic, with slender lilac-to-mid-blue flowers held above a dome of sage-green foliage. Fragrant and aromatic. 20x28in/50x70cm.
'Sussex' (syn. Arabian Night') AGM
This New Zealand-bred variety has the longest flowers of any lavandin, so it creates a haze of lilac-purple flowers above mid-green foliage. 36x42in/90x110cm.
'Seal'
Raised in Kent in 1935, this bushy, more erect blue-purple lavandin has notable grey-green foliage and it's vigorous. 39x48in/100x120cm.
Growing tips for lavandins:
Lavandins need space, because they form rounded plants that are often wider than they are tall.
Prune more lightly, especially if the foliage is grey and woolly.
Frost-tender lavenders for warm sites
Frost-tender lavenders are shorter lived and less hardy, so they should only be tidied up and deadheaded, rather than pruned. They demand good drainage and a warm site and they are only hardy to -5C. The most effective ones have tufted 'ears' held above fat flower spikes, and these vary between a punk haircut and Isadora Duncan's flowing scarf. They tend to be pricier than other lavenders, but you do get three months of flower from May until August. Many of them are bred in New Zealand.
Frost-tender lavenders to try
'Flaming Purple'
This was raised at Downderry Nursery in Kent, which is no longer trading, but still has an informative website. Long purple ears rise above a dark oval head. 30in/75cm.
'Regal Splendour'
Introduced from New Zealand in 2001 by Patrick Fairweather, this has dark flowers with paler purple 'ears' and the foliage is grey-green. 28in/70cm.
'Willow Vale'
This stunning Australian plant, introduced in 1994, has three pinkish-purple 'ears' that fan outwards above a dark, almost black flower head. 30in/75cm.
Growing tips for frost-tender lavenders:
Frost-tender lavenders with ears detest wet winters, so drainage is key.
Only plant between April and June.
They can be grown in coastal areas and in containers.
Tidy and remove the faded flowers before winter sets in.
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