Botanical Name: Lavandula dentata
Common Name: French Lavender

 

Use: Outdoors
Indigenous/Exotic : Exotic
Evergreen/Deciduous : Evergreen
Plant Type : Herb
Flower Colour : Light muave
Foliage Colour : Green
Best Season : Mid to late summer
Light : Sun
Hardiness : Hardy
Attributes : Attracts butterflies, water wise
Height (m) : 1
Spread (m) : 1.5
    
Notes : Genus of about 25 species. Can be easily identified by the tiny indentations on the leaves - hence the species named dentata. Flowers intermittently throughout the year. The lovely light mauve, cone-like flowers with the typically large "petals' on the tip make excellent cut flowers, tied in tight bunches, or dried for potpourii. Kept carefully trimmed, this lavender with its long flowering period looks attractive as a border for paths and makes a neat low hedge.

 

Lavender has exquisite fragrance and marvelously decorative and therapeutic qualities. All species must have full sun in order to produce their gloriously rich oils.

 

Thrives in hot weather and the baking sun and does best in light, sandy, well-drained soil. Dig a hole 40 by 40 centimetres. Mix one part river sand to two parts soil. Add a generous amount of compost. Place the lavender in the hole resting on the mixed soil. Fill and press down. Water well.

 

Also grows well in tubs or containers and clipping and pruning back after flowering will ensure uniform growth. Remove about a quarter of the bush, more or less level with the base of the flowering stem. In a container the plant will need extra watering and feeding. Check that the drainage holes are open and clear of debris. Stand the container in full sun and turn it every month to ensure even growth.

 

Add a natural fertiliser 3 times a year in Spring, Summer and Autumn to ensure continuous flowering. Does well with a deep weekly watering making it a superb water wise plant. The nectar content of the flowers makes them attractive to bees and butterflies. Not suited to a tropical or very humid climate. Replace every 4 - 5 years, as they tend to become woody and overgrown. Propagate from seed or cuttings.

 

Companion Planting:

 

A lavender mulch made from the clippings deters slugs, snails and beetles that attack lettuces.

 

Use lavender clippings under strawberries instead of straw to keep millipedes at bay.

 

Use clippings under ripening brinjals and tomatoes, and near onions, to keep them pest-free and healthy,

 

Lavender alternated with fennel keeps aphids off the fennel.

 

Lavender mulch keeps down mildew, especially under roses.

 

Lavender clippings keep rose beetles at bay.