Author: jennifer

Yesterday I wrote about the English lavender I recently planted in my yard.   I also planted some Spanish lavender.

The Latin name for Spanish lavender is Lavandula stoechas .   In my opinion the most distinguishing characteristic of L. stoechas is the showy “flower” which forms at the tip of the flower head (see below picture).  In fact, that bright purple decoration isn’t a flower at all; it’s a type of leaf formation called a bract .  Gorgeous.


Spanish lavender’s aren’t as hardy as English lavenders.  While most L. angustifolia is hardy to -20 degrees Farenheit, L. stoechas is hardy only to 15 or 10 degrees.  It was, perhaps, a gamble to put some in my garden, but I decided it’s worth a try.

The plant I bought was labeled Lavendula stoechas ‘Madrid Purple’ .   What I’ve read indicates that the bract is all show and no flavor and that it is also difficult to get much fragrance from the flower heads.  On this particular cultivar the individual corollas seem too small to be of much use.  It would probably be beautiful, however, in a flower arrangement, and my reading also indicates that the foliage, when cooked or grilled, stands up well as an herb in culinary dishes.  Spanish lavender, however, is not a flower of choice for sweet desserts.

In addition to the beautiful bracts, I was attracted to the Spanish lavender because the scent of the foliage seemed stronger to me than the English lavender I’m familiar with.  Again, my reading so far has indicated that the aroma of the L. stoechas foliage is, indeed, more robust.  Apparently it yields more essential oil per acre harvested than L. angustifolia , (English lavender).


I purchased a second Spanish lavender plant, also labeled Lavendula stoechas ‘Madrid Purple’ which has white bracts instead of purple bracts.  The flowers on this plant also seem a bit brighter than the midnight purple color of the flowers above.  I’m wondering if this lavender with white bracts is actually a different cultivar.  In The Lavender Garden: Beautiful Varieties to Grow and Gather Robert Kourik mentions L. stoechas ‘Alba’ , a Spanish lavender with pure white bracts.  This beautiful lavender will, I hope, thrive in my garden  for several years to come.


And so, in my little corner of the world I now have three slightly different lavenders growing.  While I’m pretty sure L. angustifolia will be my final choice for serious growing, the Spanish lavender is a beautiful plant.    It will be fun to observe these plants as summer arrives.

I’ve read the first third of one of my new lavender books:

The Lavender Garden: Beautiful Varieties to Grow and Gather by Robert Kourik .  So far it’s been interesting and informative.

On Saturday I added three lavender plants to my flowerbed and I thought it would be fun to introduce you to them.  Interestingly, lavender belongs to the plant family of mints.   This grouping is distinguished by square stems and often by remarkable fragrances as well.  There are three basic families of lavender:  English lavender, often called true lavender; Spanish lavender; and French lavender.

The first plant I added to my garden is an English lavender.  In latin names, all plants begin first with the genus, followed by the species.  The genus for lavender is Lavandula (always capitalized) and the species name for English lavenders is angustifolia .  Angustifolia means “narrow-leaved.”

The picture above is an English lavender, or Lavandula angustifolia .  The label on my lavender reads:

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Ellagance Purple’.
The Ellagance Purple in single quotation marks indicates that this lavender is a cultivar.  A cultivar means it is a specimen of a plant variety that was specifically selected from among seedlings because it differs in some unique way from the typical or normal species plant.  The specimen was something that occurred naturally in nature and is propagated from cuttings, which is the only way to keep the unique traits of the cultivar.

You can also see names abbreviated, such as L. angustifolia ‘Ellagance Purple’ or even L. a. ‘Ellagance Purple’ .

Have I confused you yet?

I wish I knew the cultivar or variety of the lavender I grew at my old house.  All I know is that it was an English, or angustifolia lavender.  This ‘Ellagance Purple’ cultivar differs from the lavender I previously grew in a few ways.


First, there are fewer leaves on each stem.  Second, the whorls are smaller and more compact.  Instead of having little flowers or blooms, called corollas, that are spaced farther apart, this cultivar has them together tightly.  Each stem also has fewer corollas, which likely means less lavender to harvest, if harvesting is your interest. I’ll have to wait and see.   Given the name of the cultivar, my guess is that it was selected for it’s rich purple color which also has greater visual impact because the corollas aren’t spread out.  A little online research yielded this information:

“2008 Fleuroselect Gold Medal winner!  This outstanding variety was selected by the Fleuroselect judges on the basis of its quick crop time, uniformity, color, and floridity.

‘Ellagance Purple’ performs admirably in the garden, producing masses of fragrant, intense purple-blue blossoms atop bushy mounds of silver-green foliage from midsummer through early fall.”  (

source here.
)

Given this information, it should be fun to watch this lavender plant grow.  Up tomorrow:  Spanish lavender.  Should be fun!

Jennifer