PL ANT INSPIRATION LAVENDER
Purple power
NEED TO K N OW Grows best in: full sun • Height: From 30cm–1m • Spread: From 50cm–1m • Flowers from: June to Sept
Every garden smells better with lavender. This evergreen herb brings long-lasting colour and scent in summer, and attracts bees and butterflies in droves
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avender can be grown in so many ways. It looks fantastic with roses in a cottage-style garden, it makes a pretty low hedge, or it can be combined with other drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants (like rosemary, euphorbia and sedum) in a modern gravel garden. It will grow happily in a sunny pot or border and needs very little water. Better still, insects love the tiny pollen-rich blooms. You can infuse the flower-heads for a scented tea, sprinkle the petals over summer desserts, or make a potpourri. The blooms of French lavenders (Lavandula stoechas; 1-4, opposite) have ‘tufts’ of feathery petals, while English lavenders (Lavandula angustifolia; 5-10, opposite) are hardier, with slim, dense flower spikes.
22/BEAUTIFUL GARDENS
W E LOV E
“Lavender growing in a pretty pot” Bumble White pot. Prices start from £9.99 for a 20cm dia. pot (excl. plants). Sales support the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
