Plant of the Month: May
Lavender
Our plant of the month is the lavender, a timeless favourite with aromatic foliage and beautiful flowers. Lavender can thrive in a sunny border or a container, and it’s loved by butterflies and bees.
Lavender is hardy and low maintenance, and will tolerate drought and difficult conditions. Most lavender prefer a sunny position with well-drained soil, and a sheltered spot over winter. Check the plant label to see how much space you need for it to grow, and ensure it has room to spread out.
Two recommended English varieties are Hidcote, with its small violet-purple flowers, and Munstead, which is bigger and tolerates heat better than other English lavenders.
French lavender has a variety of colour, fragrance and flower heads. It can grow large and does best when kept under control. If you prune it four or five weeks after it first flowers, you’ll encourage a second set of blooms.
When the flowers dry out in late summer, prune your lavender with shears to remove all the flower stalks and cut back the green healthy growth of the shrub an inch or two above the woody part. If you shape it into a dome, it will look neat all year and then burst back to life next spring.
