• Prune lightly in spring to keep plants tidy and remove winterkill. Remove no more than one-third of a plant at a time; don't cut stems back into woody growth. Plants can also be lightly sheared after flowering to keep them bushy.
• Most lavender seed is slow and difficult to germinate, with the exception of ‘Lady'. Rooted cuttings (see “Propagating,” next page) or purchased plants are your best option.
• Even if a few favourite lavender plants succumb after an exceptionally cold or wet winter, it's worth growing them to have that glorious fragrance waft over you on a warm summer day or watch bees and butterflies dance around the distinctive blue wands in the sun. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth.
Not all lavenders are lilac-coloured; there are white, violet, purple and pink cultivars, too. Most have soft, greyish green, narrow foliage. English lavender blooms in late June, while fringed and lavendin hybrid types bloom slightly later. Here are a few choice varieties, starting with the hardiest.
English lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia)
Known for their sweet, less camphor-like fragrance; Zone 4:
- ‘Hidcote' Dark violet-purple, 30 to 60 cm; good for culinary uses
- ‘Jean Davis' Pale pink, with olive green leaves, 30 to 40 cm
- ‘Lady' (a.k.a. ‘Lavender Lady') Medium lavender-blue, 25 to 38 cm. One of the few seed-grown lavenders that's reliable and blooms in its first year
- ‘Maillette' Dark lavender, 45 to 60 cm. Known for its sweet scent and high essential-oil content, it's excellent in sachets
- ‘Munstead' Pale grey-blue, 30 to 40 cm. Often considered the hardiest of the English types; easy to disbud and good for potpourri
- ‘Nana Alba' White, 20 to 38 cm. Good as an edging plant because of its compact growth
- ‘Royal Velvet' Dark purple, 60 to 90 cm. A recent cultivar with longer and darker spikes than ‘Hidcote'
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