Lavender comes from a Latin word that means to wash. This name may have been used because the ancient Romans used the leaves and flowers of the plant to scent their bathwater. Women once routinely stored dried lavender flowers with their linens and clothing. Today, the dried flowers are used in fragrant sachets (powders) and potpourris (mixtures). The flowers also are distilled to make oil that is used in some perfumes.
I have a lavender plant on the side of my house. It's right up against the foundation...so it's a safe place for lavender in the winter in zone 5. I've tried to grow it many times before and just haven't had any luck. This plant was really ignored and it took off without my help.
Although lavender plants get regularly pruned simply by harvesting the flowers, to keep them well shaped and to encourage new growth, a bit of spring pruning is in order. The taller varieties can be cut back by approximately one-third their height. Lower growing varieties can either be pruned back by a couple of inches or cut down to new growth. If you live in an area where lavender suffers some winter die-back, don't even think about pruning your plants until you see some new green growth at the base of the plant. If you disturb the plants too soon in the season, they give up trying.
The above from the internet. My lavender is kind of wild looking and not a tidy shrub like plant. I think it needs a haircut, but I'm afraid that I may have waited too long for this. I searched for pictures of this plant, but I couldn't find any...so I put a picture from the internet here. I have two terra cotta pots that need something planted in them. I was going to do rosemary, but I'm leaning toward lavender.
I love the Yardley's Lavender Soap. I was told once that it's an old lady's fragrance. So....
Balisha
9 comments:
I sure wish I could grow lavender down here, but haven't found a variety yet that likes our heat and humidity.
I like the yardly soap too.
I love lavender essential oil.
Have a great week ~ FlowerLady
Another
similarity
I Love That Soap
and Lavender
can relax me
with one whif....
I have two plants
and both are in bloom
They are small
and my dreamis
fields of Lavender
I dream big....
Hi Flower Lady...I was checking on different types of lavender that grows well in Florida and these are the ones I found.
NORTHERN: Provence, Hortensis
CENTRAL: Provence, Grosso, Spanish
COSTAL: Hidcote (also grows easily from seeds), mustead, fernleaf
Here is a website that tells all about growing it in your area.
http://oceancomforts4u.hubpages.com/hub/GROWING-LAVENDER-IN-FLORIDA
Hi Ernestine...
I thought that you might like lavender. Can you remember the kind of lavender that you have success with? I think mine is an English variety... Lavandula.
Balisha
I have lots of lavender I am in zone 3 really some people think 4.
I have to cut back every year after it gets going.
It is my favorite scent.
this only lady uses yardley
Cathy
I, too love the scent of lavender. I had some a good while ago and it grew well. I don't know what happened to it, so I bought a new plant this year. I know what happened to the new one, though. I put it in a sunny place, we live in zone 8 and it is still warm and not blazing like it will be later in the year. Anyway it looked sort of limp and I checked to see if it needed water and that wasn't it. It was still in the plastic pot. I found the poor thing when we got home from the coast and it was as dead as it can get. I'll plant one with the rosemary. It never gets attention and grows well.
Now you have me wanting some lavender hand cream. :D
I love lavender flowers and sachets too Balisha. I once borrowed a sweater from an aunt in an emergency and I washed it in lavender scented soap before returning it. She just loved the fragrance of her sweater. LOL! Alas mine died this winter and it was a well established one.
I got my daffodils bundled up. I want to thank you for that posting. What a great way to get them down and out of the way. Thanks.
Never cut into the old wood is a good rule of thumb and renew the shrub about every 5 years when they are beginning to get too woody.
I use bars of Yardley's lavendar soap on shelves and in drawers for the fragrance, and thought it might deter bugs if any came round. One day my visiting four-year-old granddaughter was too cool. I took a sweater out of a drawer for her to wear. She screwed up her face and said, "What is that smell?!" I asked if it weren't a good smell and she said: NO! I had to find something else for her. She always did have a keen sense of smell. Once when she was three, we went into a restaurant where smoking was permitted. That tiny girl pinched her nose closed and fussed. We had to go somewhere else. I agreed with her that time.
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