Grosso Dutch Lavender Plants

Lavandula intermedia: Grosso Dutch Lavandin Plants

Grosso Dutch Lavender has long, heavily-scented flower spikes with a mass of small deep blue-purple flowers. This long-flowering, vigorous variety is ideal to use as an hedge or specimen shrub. With its grey-green evergreen foliage, Lavender Grosso will add fragrance and structure to the garden all year round.

Browse our varieties of lavender, other evergreen hedging, or all hedging plants.

Delivery season is weather dependent. There is no point planting lavender out before nighttime temperatures rise as the shock sets it back, so it establishes slower than lavender planted later when the soil is warm.

• The smallest lavenders, in P9 pots, are never shipped before May. 
• We aim to ship the larger pot sizes from the end of April, but cold weather can delay delivery into May. 

Choosing a size:

• For window boxes and other containers, start with the smallest plants, which come in P9 pots and are a year old. If you plant them outside, do it from the end of May when the soil is nice and warm. They are the cheapest way to start a lavender hedge, but you will have to wait a year or two longer for them to knit together.
• For borders, hedges and edges, two-year-old plants in 1 litre pots are ideal. You get more root and more flower in the first year, and they do not look lost planted at one plant every 13" (33cm). By the end of the first summer, they will have joined up.
• For specimen shrubs that provide instant impact, buy larger plants in 3 litre pots or bigger.

All our lavender plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the soil (the pots aren't measured).

Features

• Dutch Lavender / Lavandin
• Use: Low hedging / edging, basic topiary balls & shapes
• Flowers: Purple spikes 
• Flowering: July to September
• Scent: Strong, lavender
• Leaves: Evergreen, aromatic. Silvery when mature
• Height x Spread: 90cm x 90cm
• Unappealing to deer, rodents
• Drought tolerant when established
• RHS Plants for Pollinators

Growing Grosso Lavender

• Aspect: Full sun, South facing 
• Soil: Well drained is vital, poorly fertile is preferable
• Soil pH: Above 6.5 is best. Likes chalk
• Hardiness Rating: H5 (to -15C)
• Suitable for the coast and windy locations
• Ideal for container growing

Lavender must have good drainage and close to full sun. It prefers poor soil and thrives in exposed coastal sites.
When established, they are drought-tolerant, but in their first and second year you must water them well, as with any new shrub.

Don't plant lavender out too early in Spring: the cold soil will shock it and set it back. In most years, this means waiting until May.  

There are different approaches to pruning, which is necessary to keep your lavender dense and beautiful.
The essential thing is to cut all the new, green growth down to two or three buds typically in early September, around when the last flowers have faded.
A light trim in Spring is optional, but recommended.  

Spacing a Grosso Lavender hedge: Plant at 60-90cm apart: closer spacing will give you a solid hedge sooner.

Deer and rodents are not interested in lavender - they might nibble fresh green Spring growth to test it, but as the foliage matures they ignore it.

In Your Garden Design

Lavender is a wonderfully versatile shrub, capable of being clipped in formal schemes or left to grow into a more informal, looser shape. Its evergreen foliage makes it ideal to add winter structure to borders and hedges. When clipped into domes, lavender makes a great spring backdrop for the elegant globe flowers of alliums.

In summer, the violet-blue flower spikes blend perfectly with the blues, pinks, purples and whites of catmint, agastache, clematis and geranium in a pastel-themed border, creating continuity between the early summer roses and autumn-flowering perennials.
For a more striking, contemporary look, try combining lavender with the contrasting yellows and oranges of achillea, kniphofia, crocosmia and echinacea.

Did You Know?

Grosso means 'big' or 'thick'.
In America, this variety is sold under the name Dilly Dilly, after the old folk song:

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, Lavender's green,
When I am king, dilly, dilly, you shall be queen.
Who told you so, dilly, dilly, who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly, dilly, that told me so.

Call up your men, dilly, dilly, set them to work
Some with a rake, dilly, dilly, some with a fork.
Some to make hay, dilly, dilly, some to thresh corn.
While you and I, dilly, dilly, keep ourselves warm.

Lavandula x intermedia varieties are known as lavandins or Dutch lavenders. They derive from a cross between Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) and Lavandula latifolia (Portuguese lavender), and typically grow to a larger size than English lavender.

Lavandin flowers are edible, but they have more bitter-tasting camphor than English lavender, so use sparingly. 

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

• Good drainage is most important: Lavender tolerates cold weather, but it hates "wet feet" in winter.
• Heavy clay on a dry, sunny hill that sheds water should be fine, but light, dry, poorly fertile soils are ideal.
• If your site is not well drained, lavender thrives in pots.
• It needs plenty of sun to flower well.
• It can grow near the sea, good for windy sites.
• It's drought resistant after it has established deep roots, which takes a couple of years.

Prepare the Soil Before Planting

• The key is to remove weeds and to break up soil compaction, so the new roots can spread out rapidly downwards and sideways.
• Don't enrich the soil, only use Rootgrow mycorrhizae at planting time.  
• To improve drainage, it helps to raise the soil level a little by forking in plenty of grit and sharp sand, however, this is not usually practical beyond a small ridge or mound: growing Lavender in a pot is much easier than raising the level of a whole bed! 

Care for Your New Lavender Hedge

1. Most important: water thoroughly in dry weather for the first growing season. Soak the ground, and then let the soil almost dry out before watering again. 
2. Second most important: weed around the plants.

After the first growing season, lavender in most gardens should never need watering again.
If your soil is very dry and sandy, then continue to water in dry weather at the start of their second growing season.

Even with the best care, all lavender hedging tends to go woody and floppy after 10-15 years, losing its full appeal. When you see this happening, take cuttings to replace the old hedge, or order new ones from us. 

Trimming Lavender Plants

A hard trim every year in late autumn ensures dense growth, more flowers, and extends Lavender's ornamental life span.
Cut back each stem to about two buds / 2cm of green growth. 

• Avoid cutting into the older, woody part of the stems: if you prune yearly, you should never need to do this.

Deadhead flowers regularly to encourage more - it's up to you to decide whether to leave the last blooms on the plants overwinter.

Hygiene & Diseases

Lavender is very disease resistant, and diseases are typically indicators that the site is too damp and/or shady for Lavender to thrive.

• Prune off Dead, Damaged or Diseased (DDD) wood as soon as it appears.
• Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there are signs of disease.
• Disposing of diseased material is safer than composting it.
• Clean out Autumn leaves from underneath your plants, which can trap damp.