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Why Buy English Lavender Plants?

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English Lavender Plants, Lavandula angustifolia, are the best choice for planting out in the open in the UK: that’s why we don’t sell any other kind.
We Guarantee all our plants, so we like to grow the toughest ones!

Lavenders come from around the Mediterranean world.
Spanish Lavender varieties, Lavandula stoechas, are one of the most popular, with their grape shaped, intricate flower heads. However, they are quite tender – a harsh winter cold snap like the one we just had would be a bit much for them.

Lavandula angustifolia was brought here in large amounts about 500 years ago and it quickly hopped from Britain to the newly seized American colonies – this is how a Mediterranean bush gained the name “English Lavender”.

From lavender’s point of view, an average British garden with rich soil and not too much direct sun is quite an extreme environment – if it was much colder and wetter, it would be impossible to live there.

This is why lavender plants are ideal for growing in pots – they can be sheltered in winter, moved into the sun in summer and the pot can be kept much less damp than the ground during long periods of wet weather.

The lavender you buy from us can be grown in pots and it also comes recommended for  planting out in the garden, facing the snow and damp.

Planting Lavender Outdoors:

If possible, put them in a place that has an echo of the Mediterranean: the sunny side of the garden or the dry patch of soil beside the shed.

If your soil is rocky / sandy and free draining, that’s great – just mix in a little manure/compost at planting time.

If you have a moist soil and want to make things better for your lavender, the best thing is to dig lots of old manure into it until you’ve raised the level by at least 6-10 inches.

Botany VS Poetry: The Hermaphrodite of the Woods?

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Everyone knows Silver Birch.

Its bark stands out from the other native trees. Smooth and creamy-silvery grey-white when young, mature trees have darker, crusted bark coming up from the base, creating patterned panels and ridges of the remaining pale bark.

Lovers of the Silver Birch have named it the “Lady of the Woods” for generations*, as noted by Samuel Coleridge in his poem:

“I pass forth into light–I find myself
Beneath a weeping birch (most beautiful
Of forest trees, the Lady of the Woods)…”

But Silver Birch is a unisex tree, with male and female flowers on one plant.
You could call Birch the Lady Man of the Woods

Being male or female is “normal” for animals. I’m saying normal here to mean that us Mammals do it. Many types of Fish, Amphibians and Reptiles pursue other options.

With flowering plants, normal mostly means to be a full Hermaphrodite.
A typical flower – a rose, say – has frilly little male bits called stamens, which are composed of delicate, perishable filaments with soft anthers on the end that release the pollen.
In the heart of the same flower, the much larger female parts contain the waiting eggs, with an opening for the pollen grains in amongst the lacy male stamens, often rising erect above them on a thicker pillar called the stigma.

Birch, like Alder, is a Monoecious Hermaphrodite, which means that each individual tree has separate male and female flowers, or catkins, in their cases. A catkin is a type of flower, also called an ament.

For a plant to be a girl or a boy, a Lord or a Lady, it has to be Dioecious, which means that each plant makes only male or female flowers.
Male plants of a Dioecious species are called androecious, females are gynoecious.

To help you remember all of that, I wrote this poem for you:

The ecious bit is from the Greek: it means a house,
Mono is one, Di is two,
Andro’s a boy, like Andrew,
Gyno is a girl, as in Gynecocratic Supremacist,
And Silver Birch trees are a pretty forest dwelling Monoecious Hermaphrodite.

*Except in Lincolnshire, where they call it the Ribbon tree.
People from Lincolnshire are called Yellerbellies. They are proud of it, though no one is really sure why – please comment if you have an idea.

Winter Frost & Snow Damage on Leaves & Branches

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Frost & snow damage are facts of life & no cause for alarm – some years will just be harder than others and this winter has been pretty nippy.

Frost Damage in Winter:
Winter frost damage hits young, soft leaves and shoots that didn’t have time to harden up last autumn – this is most obvious on evergreen plants.

East facing sites that get early morning sun usually have the most frost damage (the sun makes the plants thaw faster, which is more destructive).

Frost damage should be left alone until the spring, when a quick trim should sort it out.

Frost Lift: This affects things that were transplanted recently.
The frost expands in the soil, pushing everything upwards, then it thaws, leaving the plants unstable.

Frost lift should be gently firmed back down by walking on the soil around the plants when it has thawed.

Snow damage:
This happens when snow collects on branches and breaks them. Hedges can be affected too by the weight of snow piling up on top of them, bending them down or sideways.

Branches that are broken or damaged by snow should be pruned back neatly.
Pruning a larger branch is done in at least two pieces, this diagram shows the idea.

What to do next time: Go round in the morning after heavy snow and use a broomstick to gently remove as much snow as possible from plants that are having a rough time (we missed out several of the lavender plants in our garden and they were totally crushed by the snow. When it thawed, there was just a soggy mess left clinging to some dead stems that smelt faintly of lavender!).

We Deliver Lavender In May Only!

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Buying Lavender from us:

We can give you the best prices if we deliver all the lavender plants we grow for the year during May. The warming soil is great for planting out pot-grown lavender.

We Guarantee all our plants for 1 year after you get them.
Lavender really wants full sun and to be dry in winter, because its roots are susceptible to rotting.

We had some good rain recently, but you need to water your plants if there are only light showers.
Your plants are very drought resistant when they are mature.