No, Lavender is not native to the UK, it’s a Mediterranean plant.
The Romans introduced lavenders to Britain over 1,500 years ago, using the flowers to scent and wash themselves; the word itself is from the Latin lavare, to wash.
Their legionaries carried dried lavender to pack into bandages for its antibacterial properties, and it was as staple of nosegays from then until whenever people stopped gaying noses.
Since those times, the species that performed the best here is so-called English Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia.
Read about English Lavender compared to Dutch Lavandin and French Butterfly Ears, which are also widely grown in the UK today.
English Lavender History Trivia
By the 17th century, many houses had rooms where essences were distilled for household use. One of the traditional apothecary’s key ingredients, a row of Lavender was a must for a proper herb patch.
Queen Victoria was a lover of lavender scented items, ordering it in everything from wood polish to bath water and laundry soap.
Such products were fashionable with the ladies of the day, and the English lavender industry took over miles of farmland. It takes 100-130 kilos of flowers to produce one kilo of lavender essence.
The main growing areas were around Merton in South London, which was Surrey in those days.
At the height of its popularity in the Victorian era, Hitchin growers Perks and Llewellyn were cultivating over 100 acres of lavender.
The rise in land prices after the First World War pushed growers out of business, and today most commercial lavender is grown in Provence, where the vast expanses of purple and blue, contrasted with sunflowers and wheat in peak season, against a backdrop of lakes, historical villages and churches are an iconic image and huge tourist attraction.
Essential lavender oil from the Haute-Provence region (the best-known region is the Valensole Plateau) is a certified product with AOP status, and 10ml of essential lavender oil sells for around £6 in the UK.
These days, lavender is more popular than ever in a wide range of edible products, from teas to honey, chutney, ice-cream, chocolate and fudge, and British lavender fields are making a comeback, mainly in Kent, the Cotswolds and Norfolk.
A quick remedy for bee stings is to use a paste of baking soda and water to neutralise the sting, letting it dry for a few minutes, then applying a drop of lavender oil to soothe and disinfect the wound.
It is a salve for stress and insomnia, and soothes post-surgery pain. Its clean, refreshing scent, when dried and stuffed into linen pillows, is greatly enhanced with eucalyptus prunings: hung strategically in the shower cubicle, they will lend a spa-like scent and relaxation to your ablutions (whale music optional).
Lavandula angustifolia, meaning ‘narrow leaf’, is known as “English lavender”, and was formerly classified as Lavandula officinalis, which refers to its belonging to a storeroom as a medicinal plant. That name is common among medicinal and useful herbs like Salvia, Pulmonaria, Rosmarinus, Borago, and Hyssopus officinalis.