Lavender: How to Grow and Use the Fragrant Herb
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Lavender - Ellen Spector Platt
Copyright © 1999, 2009 by Ellen Spector Platt
First Edition Published 1999. Second Edition 2009
Published by
STACKPOLE BOOKS
5067 Ritter Road
Mechanicsburg, PA 17055
www.stackpolebooks.com
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to Stackpole Books, 5067 Ritter Road, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17055.
Printed in China
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Cover design by Wendy Reynolds
Cover: Rows of Lavandula angustifolia ‘Royal Velvet’ ready for harvest at Purple Haze Lavender Farm, Sequim, Washington.
Photographs by Ellen Spector Platt, unless otherwise noted
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Platt, Ellen Spector.
Lavender : how to grow and use the fragrant herb / Ellen Spector Platt. — 2nd ed.
p. cm.
First ed. published 1999.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8117-3546-9 (pbk.)
1. Lavenders. 2. Lavenders—Utilization. I. Title.
SB317.L37P58 2009
635.9'3396—dc22
2008026553
eBook ISBN 978-0-8117-4327-3
For the Next Gardeners,
Lucy Katrina Platt, Annabelle Platt,
and Sophie-Frances Devlin Stewart
At Jardin du Soleil Lavender Farm in Sequim, Washington, the aroma of lavender has a calming effect regardless of the rooster’s awakening call.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Lavender Sweet Lavender
ONE Lavender Varieties
Factors to Consider in Selecting a Variety
Species and Common Varieties
TWO History of Lavender
THREE Uses of Lavender
Aromatic Uses
Medicinal Uses
Cleansing
Flavoring
FOUR Lavender in the Garden
Kitchen Herbs
Medicinal Gardens
Knot and Foursquare Gardens
Fragrance and Other Sensory Enhancements for the Garden
Hedges
Attracting Butterflies
Mixed Perennial Borders
Rock Gardens
Commercial Landscaping
Container Plantings
Topiary
Bonsai
Combinations
Moon Gardens
FIVE Growing Lavender
Horticultural Planting Zones
Pests and Diseases
Pruning
Buying Plants
Starting from Seed
Taking Cuttings
Propagating by Layering
SIX Harvesting Lavender
Cutting for Drying
Best Varieties for Drying
Cutting for Fresh Flowers
On Display
Easy and Elegant Fresh Lavender
Easy and Elegant Dried Lavender
Fresh Flowers for Fragrance
SEVEN Lavender Farms and Festivals
EIGHT Lavender Projects
Lavender Bundle
Fragrant Lavender Wand
Lavender Garland
Meadow Sweet Wreath
Rosy Delight
French-Style Stacked Arrangement
Lavender Tower
Lavender Tree
Lavender Tree Revisited
Lavender Lady
Topiary Tree
Floral Loom
NINE Lavender Potpourris
Aroma
Texture
Color
Fixatives
Potpourri Recipes
TEN Cooking with Lavender
Aromatic Chicken
Roast Halibut a la Provence
Herbed Potato Salad
Lavender Vinegar
Poached Apples
Edible Flowers
Crystallized Lavender for Decoration
Lemon Loaf Lavandula
Madeleines
Putting Up
Lavender Sources
Further Reading
Index
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Iam indebted to my lavender spotters, those who trained their eyes to see a purple haze at 60 miles per hour and alerted me to fantastic photo opportunities: Anne and Alex Scott, Dolores Delin, Christine Gaffney, and as always, Ben Platt, who has the family eagle eye for discovering hidden treasures.
Thanks also to those who allowed me to photograph the special gardens that they worked so hard to achieve: Toni Groff, Joe Quesada, Louise and Cyrus Hyde at Well-Sweep Herb Farm, Barbara A. Steel at Alloway Creek Gardens and Herb Farm, Mary Vogel, Pauline Pettitt-Palenik, and Ruth Flounders.
I appreciate the talents of the nature photographer and teacher Alan Rokach. For this edition, I was lucky to find another photography guru, noted garden photographer Alan Detrick, who helped me enormously as I switched from a manual 35mm Nikon to a digital Canon. Kyle Weaver, who has edited four of my books at Stackpole, has done so with unfailing grace, humor, and attention to detail. Donna Pope has been my treasured sales liaison at Stackpole for the past twelve years, and editorial assistant Brett Keener has been unfailingly helpful. I am also grateful to Katherine Powis, librarian extraordinaire at the New York Horticultural Society.
Dr. Curtis Beus, director of agricultural and natural resources for Washington State University in Clallam County, has been one of the driving forces behind the Sequim lavender festival and conference. I’m grateful that he led me to the lavender farms of Sequim, which inspired me to write this second edition. I’m also ever grateful to the farmers, who do the work of breeding, growing, harvesting, drying, and distilling the lavender. They took time to talk to me and allowed me to photograph: Barbara Hanna at Lost Mountain, the Nicholsons at Jardin du Soleil, Mike Reichner of Purple Haze, the Shirkeys at Port Williams Lavender, and the Wajdas of Willow Pond and the Pennsylvania Lavender Festival.
Mike Reichner grows bands of helicrysum to contrast with the purple waves of lavender at Purple Haze Lavender Farm in Sequim.
Lavender Sweet Lavender
Awhiff of an aroma recalls a childhood memory—the lavender man standing in front of Whitman’s, the landmark Philadelphia confectionery shop, with snow white hair, ruddy pockmarked face, and around his neck a stout strap holding his tray. The tray is filled with lavender buds, violet-blue and redolent to passersby on their way to the glamorous shops of Chestnut Street. He sells his lavender, sweet lavender, five a pack, six for a quarter
in small glassine envelopes. The lavender man supports himself on crutches, as he is missing one leg. He has claimed the same spot for years, always at Whitman’s, where stylish women go to lunch or to savor butterscotch sundaes.
Other people have fond childhood memories of lavender. Some fifty years later, as I hang bunches of the fragrant flowers to sell at the Philadelphia Flower Show, women strolling by halt in their tracks as they catch the scent and wistfully recall, When I was a girl …
The display gardens at Lost Mountain Lavender Farm in Sequim help you compare and choose your favorite varieties.
CHAPTER ONE
Lavender Varieties
Most sources list the Mediterranean area—Greece, France, Spain, and the North African coast—as the native habitat of lavender, but several botanists think that India also may have been part of the native range. Romans used it to perfume and disinfect their baths and probably carried it to England when they moved north to conquer. It was one of the plants brought by colonists to America with other favored species to make the new world feel more like home.
The botanical name for lavender is Lavandula, its genus name, which comes from the Latin lavandus, to be washed,
or lavare, to wash.
Lavender is in the same family as mint, Lamiaceae, along with rosemary, thyme, and sage, and displays the characteristic square stem, opposite leaves, and lipped corolla on the flower. The taxonomy of lavender is confusing. The designations French, English, and Spanish are not botanical reference points and sometimes refer only to the country in which the lavenders are planted. Most of the varieties called English are of the species angustifolia, but this species is also planted in France. Because of such ambiguity, I don’t refer to varieties by country name. I suggest you do the same and get used to looking at a plant’s label—the botanical one, consisting of the genus and species in Latin, and the variety name in English. Using the Latin names may seem difficult, but you will be less confused in the long run, and if you are particular about what you plant, this is the only way to be accurate.
L. a. ‘Premier’ as part of a mixed perennial border at Well-Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray, New Jersey.
In regard to using a country name, however, there is an exception. ‘Dutch’ is a variety name of the Lavandula x intermedia, and a handsome variety it is too. ‘Dutch’ refers to one specific plant and is not a catchall for every lavender grown in the Netherlands.
Some of the hardy lavenders are known as lavandins. This name refers to the hybrid of Lavandula angustifolia and L. latifolia, which produces L. x intermedia, a lovely cross between the two parents with excellent characteristics of both. Since Lavandula x intermedia is a mouthful to say, the shortened version in garden-speak is lavandin. These plants generally bloom about one month later than the angustifolias.
Lavender has no known insect pests, but too much moisture causes root rot and will kill the plant, as will radical pruning of old, woody plants. Plants in a favored location can live twenty to twenty-five years, but some commercial farms replace shrubs after five years of growth for the best oil production.
Flowers typically bloom in June, July, or August. Some species have a second, sparser bloom (about 25 percent of the first cutting) although some varieties have been bred to produce a larger second flush of bloom.
Because lavender is so easy for experts to pollinate, new varieties are offered to the public each year. In her book Lavender: The Growers Guide, Virginia McNaughton lists over two hundred and fifty named varieties and cultivars. Plant breeders are constantly seeking better flower or foliage color, different growth habits, earlier or later bloom times, the ability to rebloom, greater hardiness, and especially, plants with combinations of the most desirable characteristics. Some varieties are hard to distinguish because differences such as hardiness or bloom time