Lavandula angustifolia

‘Ashdown Forest’
‘Bowles’ Early’
‘Cedar Blue’
‘Fring Favourite’
‘Hidcote’ AGM
‘Hidcote Pink’
‘Imperial Gem’
‘Lady’
‘Batlad’ Little Lady
‘Loddon Pink’
‘Miss Katherine’
‘Munstead’
‘Nana Alba’
‘Princess Blue’
‘Royal Purple’
‘Rosea’

Lavandula ‘Blue Cushion’
Lavandula x christiana
Lavandula dentata
Lavandula dentata ‘Linda Ligon’
Lavandula ‘Fragrant Memories’
Lavandula ‘Sawyers’

Lavandula viridis (Lemon or Green lavender)

Lavandula x intermedia

‘Alba’ aka ‘Large White’
AGM aka ‘Vera’
‘Grappenhall’
‘Grosso’
‘Hidcote White’
‘Seal’
‘Walvera’ Walberton’s
Silver Edge (v)

Although we stock a very limited range of herbs, our speciality is Lavender, of which we have 53 varieties, ranging from the very hardy to the frost tender.

Without lavender, both herbal medicine and the perfume trade would be severely impoverished. In the wild, these distinctive plants grow naturally from the Atlantic islands in the west, right across the Mediterranean, North Africa and Arabian countries, as far as central and southern India in the east.

Lavandula stoechas

‘Fathead’
‘Helmsdale’
‘Kew Red’
‘Marshwood’
‘Snowman’
‘Willow Vale’

Lavenders vary in habit from tall shrub-like plants to low lying herbs with woody bases that send up new flowering stems each year. They give off a powerful and attractive scent for most of the year and vary, in colour, from deep blue and mauve to pale pink and white.

These fragrant plants are extremely versatile —as effective ground cover and as a source of bouquets for flower arrangements, pot pourri and so on.

More compact varieties of Lavender make extremely attractive low hedges in more formal gardens. During the summer of 2003 we planted a Lavender Maze in the former rose garden, based on a design for the Gonzaga family. It’s now firmly established — as the photograph below clearly shows!