Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Other Names:  English Lavender, Common Lavender

Description:

Long lasting purplish-blue blooms from early to mid-summer; dense, rich green foliage is very aromatic; a perfect choice for edging or massing in the garden

Ornamental Features

Essence Purple Lavender has masses of beautiful spikes of fragrant purple flowers with blue overtones rising above the foliage from early to late summer, which are most effective when planted in groupings. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive fragrant needle-like leaves are green in colour. The foliage often turns coppery-bronze in fall.

Landscape Attributes

Essence Purple Lavender is a dense multi-stemmed annual with a mounded form. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and can be pruned at anytime. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Essence Purple Lavender is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Essence Purple Lavender will grow to be about 12 inches tall at maturity extending to 18 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. Although it's not a true annual, this slow-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. It is not particular as to soil type, but has a definite preference for alkaline soils, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Essence Purple Lavender is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It is often used as a 'filler' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, providing a mass of flowers and foliage against which the thriller plants stand out. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.