Botanical Name: Lavandula stoechas
Common Name: Spanish Lavender

 

Use: Outdoors
Indigenous/Exotic : Exotic
Evergreen/Deciduous : Evergreen
Plant Type : Herb
Flower Colour : Dark purple
Foliage Colour : Grey green
Best Season : Late spring to summer
Light : Sun
Hardiness : Hardy
Attributes : Attracts butterflies, water wise
Height (m) : .60
Spread (m) : .60
    
Notes : Genus of about 25 species. Useful in a border, rock garden, as an edging plant or low hedge. The flowers and foliage of this species are richly aromatic. The short, unbranched stalks bear distinctive dark purply-pink flowers and brilliant dark purple or magenta bracts that decorate the top of the tight 4-sided cone-like flowers. The leaves are small and slender with straight edges and when fresh have a typical camphorish lavender scent. Only flowers once in the year. The best quality oil is extracted from this species. Makes an excellent potpourri addition. A popular strewing herb, both for its insect-repellant properties and its long-lasting fragrance.

 

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.