The Scented Garden - Lavender

Scent in the garden is an elusive delight, but a powerful one.  Lavender has been grown in gardens from late medieval times, and the essential oil used for perfumes.  The oil is a powerful, natural antiseptic.  Perhaps this is why the Romans used it in their baths; its name comes from the Latin verb lavare, meaning to wash. (Anna Pavord)

"ladies fair, I bring to you
lavender with spikes of blue;
sweeter plant was never found
growing on our english ground."

Caryl Battersby

I have a small Lavender hedge in the garden whose fragrance gives me great pleasure.  It is planted at the edge of the path so that when I walk past I brush against it .  On a soft summer evening the the garden fills with its scent.

"lavender, sweet lavender;
come and buy my lavender,
hide it in your trousseau, lady fair.
Let its flovely fragrance flow
Over your from head to toe,
lightening on your eyes, your cheek, your hair."

Cumberkand Clark Flower Song Book 1929

Each year I take a few cuttings and now I have another small hedge beginning in the front garden which is intermixed with Rosemary bushes.

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"here’s your sweet lavender
sixteen sprigs a penny
that you’ll find my ladies
will smell as sweet as any" Lavender Sellers’s Cry, London England CA 1900

If you want to dry Lavender pick the flowers when they are at their best - the temptation is to leave them on the plant too long.  Tie them in bunches and hang them upside down in an airy place.

Lavenders must have sun and good drainage and should be clipped over after flowering to keep the bushes tidy.  After a few years the plants will become straggly and full of dead wood.  But if you always take cuttings they can easily be replaced and don't take too long to establish.

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Lavender leaves and flowers have more crushability than any other plant - their fragrance is so reviving and should be a must for any garden. (Helen Dillon)

All quotes from Lavender Shoppe Quotes