Lavender Varieties

Lavender has long been prized in the garden for its beautiful flowers and sweet fragrance. Additionally, pollinators such as butterflies and honeybees love it, and garden pests such as deer and rabbits do not. All of these attributes make it a remarkably beneficial garden addition.

How to grow lavender

Lavender thrives in full sun and well-draining, neutral to alkaline soil. It has very low water requirements making it ideal for drought-tolerant gardens. Once a year the plants need to be pruned, but apart from that if you have a well-suited location and prepared soil lavender is a wonderfully low-maintenance landscaping element.

Lavender varieties

There are more than 400 varieties of lavender ranging in size, foliage color and shape, flower color and shape, fragrance and particularly suited use. Here are some of our most favorite lavender varieties for the garden. 

Lavandula x intermedia "Grosso"

A large hardy hybrid of L. angustifolia and L. latifolia, this hybrid is sterile and must be grown from cuttings. This is the most widely grown lavender variety in France and probably worldwide. It blooms mid-summer and is tall growing (3-4 feet) with lustrous dark purple flowers that stay on the stem when dried. It is rich in essential oil making it highly fragrant.

Lavandula x intermedia "Provence" 

This variety blooms mid-summer and is tall growing (3-4 feet) with light purple flowers that tend to rub off the stem quite readily when dried. It is a wonderful back-of-the-border lavender for the garden. Our favorite use is for culinary lavender and sachets. It is a hardy hybrid of L. angustifolia and L. latifolia. This hybrid is sterile and must be grown from cuttings.

Lavandula angustifolia "Hidcote"

This variety blooms early summer and grows approximately 2 feet tall with deep lavender-violet blooms. It is especially well-suited for dense borders and hedges. It has a strong aroma and the flowers will dry beautifully for later use. Hidcote is a fertile variety that re-seeds well and hybridize readily into many varieties. 

Lavandula angustifolia "Alba"

White blooms adorn this variety that blooms early summer and grows 2-3 feet tall. It provides striking contrast in the garden, as well as delightful aroma. This is a fertile variety that re-seeds well and hybridize readily into many varieties. 

Lavandula stoechas "Otto Quast"

Especially suitable for landscaping, this is the first of all the lavender species to flower. Deep mauve flowerheads are topped with large bracts or petals (“rabbit ears”) of vibrant magenta. This variety grows 2-3 feet tall and can spread through self-seeding. With judicious “deadheading”, it will continue producing new blooms through the summer. This variety has a subtler scent.

Lavender is a remarkably diverse plant well-suited to herb gardens, fresh flower gardens, low-maintenance landscaping and drought prone gardens.

If you are interested in adding lavender to your own garden, be sure to peruse our lavender growing tips to ensure your cultivation endeavors are successful.

A note on common names for lavender... You may come across the use of the terms "English", "French", "Spanish" or "Italian" to refer to species of lavender. These are purely colloquial terms that are applied to certain species groups. In fact, multiple of these terms are sometimes applied to the same species. This causes a great deal of confusion. At The Lavender Store we prefer to use the scientific names for lavender to ensure clarity and accuracy. 

If you come across lavender plants at your local nursery labeled as "French Lavender" or one of the other colloquial terms above, be sure to ask for the scientific name of the plant to ensure you are getting the variety you are after. There is, in fact, no such thing as "French Lavender".