Lavender Plants

Order Lavender Now For May Delivery

• Order now, pay later: we don't charge your card until before delivery
• When your order is ready: your mail order hedge plants are delivered by next working day courier (not the next working day after ordering!)
• Friendly support: if there is anything wrong with your plants when you inspect them, Contact Us within 5 working days
• UK Grown: using peat free compost

Delivery Prices

A typical delivery charge for potted shrubs like Lavender is £8 to £15, depending on the order size, if there are no larger plants like trees in the order as well.
Delivery is calculated automatically during checkout after you enter your delivery address.

Delivery Season

Lavender should be planted into warm soil.
If you plant it too early, before nighttime temperatures rise, the roots get shocked and set back, which is especially bad for little plants.

• The smallest lavenders, in P9 pots, are never shipped before May
• The larger pot sizes are usually shipped from the end of April, but cold weather like we had this year can delay

Delivery Lead Time

• Typically 2 weeks if the plant is in stock, rather than available to order before its delivery season
• We process orders in batches to keep costs low
• We keep you notified by email

Choosing a pot size

• For window boxes and other containers, starting with the smallest, cheapest plants in P9 pots is great because it pots these little plants up while putting them to use ornamentally
  If you plant P9s out directly, the best time is late-May into June when the soil is warm and there is plenty of growing time before Winter
• For quick borders, hedges and edges, or single shrubs that provide instant impact, larger plants in 2 litre pots are ideal. You get more root and more flower in the first year, and they do not look lost planted as a hedge at one every 13" (33cm)
• For filling a spot in a mature flower border with a lavender muffin-mound, or for a truly instant lavender hedge, 5 Litre pots are the largest we grow. We reckon Lavender sold in pot sizes larger than 5L has a higher failure rate in its first Winter.

How many plants per metre? 

Spacing a Lavender hedge: Like most evergreen hedging, the default spacing is 3 per metre, 33cm apart in a single row.
 

Choosing A Variety

• Hidcote is the most popular English lavender variety, followed by Munstead, which has paler flowers. Both are superb as hedging, and suitable for the kitchen.
• French Butterfly Lavender is great for single shrubs clipped into a mound, we think Regal Splendour is the best variety to admire close up.
• Any Lavandin is best for harvesting flowers with that invigorating, camphor heavy aroma: Grosso has nice rich purple flowers, and the most oil for harvesting.

Best Lavender for ...

• Top 5 Lavender varieties for UK Gardens: Cut to the chase: Hidcoteis number one.
• Which Lavender variety is best for cooking? Deep Purple/Blue English Lavender has the best flavour and keeps its colour after cooking.
• Which Lavender variety is best for chickens? Any English Lavender over 60cm: most chickens will shred smaller plants.    
• Which Lavender variety is best for oil? Hidcote and Munstead for English Lavender, or Grosso for Dutch Lavender. French Butterfly Lavender is not commonly used for oil.
• Which Lavender variety is best for hedging & edging? Tall Purple English and Dutch Lavenders have the most striking contrast between flowers and foliage when planted in rows or en masse.

Growing Lavender

Read our full guide on how to grow lavender, with a quick Autumn pruning video.

Lavender FAQs

All Lavender is great for bees, butterflies, and other pollinating bugs; a mix of varieties is even better.
All Lavender is great for growing in pots: French Lavender is especially popular.

• What's the difference between English, Dutch, and French "Butterfly" Lavenders?
• Can I grow Lavender in the Shade?
• Harvesting Lavender Flowers for Oil or For Drying
• Potted Lavender 8:8:8 Watering Rule - More of a Guideline, really
• Lavender plants are safe for dogs and cats.

Best Hardy Lavender Varieties for Cold Climates in the North & Scotland?

• All English & Dutch lavenders are RHS Hardiness Rated H5 (-15C to -10C), fine for cold regions
• Hidcote, Munstead, and Vera are time-tested favourites
• Phenomenal is a fairly new variety with good reviews from cold climate gardeners

Only French Butterfly Lavender varieties don't perform so well outdoors in the UK's colder areas, where they are usually grown in pots, but a sheltered, sunny, South facing location near a house is probably fine.

Lavender is generally hardy and able to survive the British winter with only a bit of leaf damage, but French Butterfly Lavender might perform better in a pot that you bring into shelter during winter.

Planting Lavender

• Lavender prefers a sunny, dry, windy site, and cannot tolerate damp soil in Winter.
• Plant outdoors in warm, well worked soil from late April at the earliest, through to early August.
• Plant in pots at any time, using a sandy, well-draining potting mix.

To keep the base of the plants above heavy clay ground, try creating mounds or ridges to help drainage and air flow, using added organic matter and large particle sand (not smooth sand) or pea grit mixed into the clay.

Lavender Care

• Pruning each autumn is essential to keep them bushy and floriferous. Prune hard, but avoid cutting into old woody growth beyond a visible leaf bud: even a tiny one is fine.
• Regular dead-heading throughout the season will promote repeat flowering.
• Trimming in spring is not essential, but keeps plants tight and bushy and flowering at their peak. 

Lavender's aesthetic appeal naturally declines after about a decade in most locations, even with diligent care, so it pays to take cuttings from older plants as their replacements! 

Lavender In The Garden

A naturally small, bushy shrub, lavender is one of the most valuable ornamental hedging and edging plants. 

Hardy English, French and Dutch Lavenders are staples of sunny gardens and patios with their profuse flowers, attractive evergreen foliage, and fantastic scent.

A go-to choice to soften straight lines, blurring the lines of terraces, steps, or paths. A shrub rose border walled off with lavender makes a classic combo.

One of the few really useful kitchen garden herbs that, like fennel, truly belongs in the ornamental border as well.