by Jackie C, WGHS
When you think lavender, think Mediterranean, sunny, warm, dry, rocky, and sandy. Lavender is an unusual herb as it prefers dry, rocky, and sandy soil, and very little or no fertilizer. If you pick up a handful of soil, squeeze it tightly, and it falls apart when you open your hand, you have the perfect soil for lavender.
In the genus lavender, there are over 90 families, but in our zones (5-6), we usually only talk about three: Lavandula angustifolia, Lavandula x intermedia, and Lavandula stoechas.
The most often grown lavender is angustifolia. Although considered hardy to zone 6, we still lose them. Most of the culinary lavenders come from the angustifolia family, but not all angustifolias are culinary.
A favorite is ‘Folgate’ as it is culinary and very hardy in our zone 6 climate. ‘Betty Blue’ is another wonderful choice as are all in the Ellegance line. Most lavenders are just that when in bloom, lavender. The Ellegance line however, has blue, pink, and white flowers. Although most angustifolias bloom only once, ‘Buena Vista’ is not only a repeat bloomer, but also culinary. A star!
The next most popular are the intermedia. They are a cross between the angustifolia and the latifolia. They are hardy in our zone 6, but their main feature is their size. They can get really big so they need room and lots of it. My ‘Grosso’ was nearly 9 years old when I lost it and was over 5 feet wide and tall.
The intermedia group also blooms only once, but the blooms are long lasting and have long stems. My favorites are ‘Grosso’ and its cousin ‘Dilly Dilly.’ This family is not culinary except for ‘Provence.’ The intermedias are generally used in perfumes, soaps, cleaning products, and insecticides as they are very high in oils and have a camphor-like fragrance. Thus in the garden, they are fragrant, and deer don’t like them. Hurray!
Our third group, the stoechas are generally not hardy in our zones. But don’t let that stop you as this group blooms continuously all season. They are non-culinary, but their contribution is their continuous bloom and unusual flowers.