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Spanish Lavender

Personally, I find Spanish Lavender (Lavandula stoechas ssp. pedunculata)
the most attractive of all lavenders. It is basically a more slender,
taller form of French Lavender (L.stoechas ssp. stoechas). It reaches a
height of about 70cm in SW Britain, but unlike other lavenders it has a
rather open branching shape. This makes it well suited to being used as a
specimen rather than as a hedging plant. The stems are thickly clothed
with greenish-grey aromatic leaves, and bear purple flowers with
exceptionally long standards - they are as long again as the rest of the
inflorescence. They are produced over a shorter season than the more
typical English Lavenders (peak time is early summer in the UK, presumably
earlier in a proper med climate) but in larger numbers, so it is
particularly noticeable when it is out. The scent is nothing special

Like Bob, I can't really comment on its drought tolerance, though i would
have thought that coming from Spain it would be reasonably tough. It
certainly copes fine with dampness though, reliably coming through our
cold wet winters in a clay soil. However, a spell of hot humid weather
during the flowering season can ruin the flowers (it did last year).

You may also come across a Lavandula 'Papillon'. This is exactly the same
thing (though it's usually twice the price). In this country, it's just
Hilliers trying to cash in by giving it a non-scientific, more marketable
name (and causing much confusion). I wouldn't mind if they had actually
bothered to breed something new, but rebadging a straight species for
marketing purposes does annoy me.

Anyway, enough moaning. I'm off to the pub.

Tristan Hatton-Ellis
Bristol, UK
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