re: speaking of lavenders
- Subject: re: speaking of lavenders
- From: &* A* O* <s*@gimcw.org>
- Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:08:08 -0500 (Central Daylight Time)
Love all this talk of lavenders - one of my favorite plants.
On growing them so they do not 'fall apart':
Years ago, my children attended a French-American school in Berkeley. I
helped develop the landscape from time to time. Once, when an adjacent
property was annexed to the school, it was a great opportunity to add a
vegetable garden for the kids and some additional sidewalk planting. I was
excited to increase the number of lavender around the school since everyone
really enjoyed them.
The first time I tried to plant in this new area I was given a shock - the
soil was virtually impossible to dig!! It was full of lots of chunks of old
foundation concrete (from the house that was removed from the property)!! It
was clear that I would not be able to treat this bed in the same manner as
others.
I had recently read an article by Joan Head, a well known lavender enthusiast
in the UK, where she mentioned that the best specimens of Lavandula species
were those growing on the old dump site of her property. This mounded area
was full of all manner of old stones, bricks, crockery, and other discards. I
wondered if my bed would support lavenders in the same way.
Because I could not plant larger specimens, I started with small 4" plants and
rooted cuttings of various types of Lavandula species - stoechas, dentata,
angustifolia, intermedia, etc. They were a bit slow in taking (not helped by
the stray basket ball or running child) but eventually became well
established. They stayed pretty dense and full, were very fragrant, and
flowered intensely. I pruned them only once, after the main spring flowering.
They received erratic irrigation from the school's grounds keepers and parent
volunteers. Often during the summer, when school was out of session, they
were completely ignored and un-watered.
In spring, people praised them endlessly and asked what 'my secret' was. When
I told them what a hard life these plants had they were nonplussed! But then
Olivier Filippi, a former active member of this list, wrote all about how he
practiced the same type of approach with many Mediterranean native plants, so
should we be surprised?
Seán O.
Seán A. O'Hara
sean(at)gimcw.org
www.hortulusaptus.com
