Lavandula angustifolia 'HIDCOTE'

First time visitor to French Provance will be astonished seeing the endless fields glowing with deep purple colour. Lavenders are grown there like corn or potatoes here. The magnificent view is often linked with a question ´can we do it at home, too? ´, and the answer is positive: YES! Lavenders are hardy and low maintenance plants that will thrive in any well-drained soil in full sun.

Hidcote is a very popular variety of lavender with the brightest violet-blue flowers. It forms a compact and dense clump, ideal for beds where tall and leggy perennial is not required. Evergreen leaves are narrow, silvery blue-green. You can remove the stalks with spent flowers after flowering to make the clump look neat again, or even sooner if you wish to dry the flowers (hung with flowers heads upside down in an airy room).

We recommend cutting the plant every spring by about a third its size to maintain a dense and profusely flowering shrub. It will grow in most types of soil provided it is well-drained, it only needs a sunny location. Fully hardy to min. -27°C (USDA 5b).

Last update 04-07-2008