Lavender

Hello everybody and especially Anthony,

I joined this group a while back, having taken a walk over from the Lavandula group, and have enjoyed reading the wide range of knowledgeable postings. I have also been meaning to write in, and now Anthony gives me a good reason.  I edit The Lavender Bag and can supply copies of the issues that contain Anthony's account but would have to make a charge because of postal costs and because even subscribers have to pay for back copies (I don't make a profit on it). Anyone interested can see a list of contents of back issues up to November 2001 on my web site.  Seeing Anthony refer to it as a British publication set me thinking and I looked up the current distribution.  Of 143 subscibers, 91 are from the UK and of the other thirteen countries represented, the US leads the way with 20 subscribers.  And the latest issue contains contributions from the US, Canada, Australia as well as the UK..  I suppose I'm saying that I feel it is an international publication, though with a small (and highly select!) readership.

Well, I also wanted to comment on the L. pinnata and L. mutifida discussion that took place a while back.  I was rather  tied up at the time but promised myself I would respond with something when I could. Meanwhile, there were comprehensive responses from John MacGregor and one or two others.  The true L. pinnata is also difficult to obtain in the UK and I too constantly see hybrids for sale under the pinnata label. L. pinnata is quite a small plant in cultivation and in the wild, reaching 40-50cm (the largest of my plants reaches 19" in flower; they are from wild collected seed in Lanzarote and from a parent plant given me from Madeira). The mislabelled hybrids are usually much more vigorous.  I think that what we see over here most often is a hybrid of pinnata and canariensis (in Australia one form of this is called 'Sidonie').  There is such a cross in the wild, called L.x christiana  and this seems now to be in cultivation here, sometimes sold under its correct title and sometimes as L.pinnata.  It has a vivid blue flower colour, from the canariensis parent, and has also inherited the canariensis foliage scent whereas pinnata has a delicate mid blue flower and a less aggressive scent. When I've learned how, I'll post up some close-ups of L.pinnata on the web site (still getting to grips with the new digital camera).

Another feature of the true L.pinnata is the length of the fertile bract subtending the calyx (one and a half times the length of the calyx).  To me this is the most striking feature to distinguish it from other Canary lavenders, notably L.buchii var buchii which is often mistaken for L.pinnata.  Tim Upson and Stephen Jury wrote about the Canary Island lavenders in The Lavender Bag and this is one of the articles currently featured on the web site and might be of interest to lavender lovers on this line.  The confusion with L. multifida, reported by David Feix, is hard to understand since they are such utterly different lavenders but this seems to have been settled by John's detailed description.  L.multifida is not one of my favourite lavenders because ot its extremely strong camphoraceous scent whereas L.pinnata is one of my top three, so I am a little biased.

More than you ever wanted to know about L.pinnata so I'll sign off.  

Joan Head,  Editor, The Lavender Bag
http://www.headfamily.freeserve.co.uk/lavender
Gardening in East Midlands, UK (Zone 8 I think)
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