Lavender, which kind?

[youvegottobekidding]

Would like to plant some lavender in the garden, shaded during the morning, sunny in the afternoon. The last 2 lavenders we got from Homebase we kept in pots & they didn’t last long (can’t rem which type they were).

Several yrs ago or maybe longer in our old house we planted a lavender (I suspect is was French butterfly?) and it grew massively over a few years. Although if I rem correctly it was probably planted in full sun spot.

Any advice please?

Oh and I forgot to ask, what’s the best soil, compost to plant it with? TIA

Oh can I jump on this OP. I would like to grow a small lavender hedge under our square bay window. Mostly sunny and very dry front garden with 5-6 foot laurel boundary hedge

French or victory lavender maybe? I know next to nothing about gardening 🙈 but I have two types of lavender and I really love the tall colourful french lavender. It’s not hugely scented but has those lovely long ears?

The English lavender is doing really badly in my garden.

• both mine are in sun for the morning and shade as the afternoon comes in.

They need a lot of drainage so that they don't become waterlogged and will appreciate a lot of sun. My french lavender has been out in full flower for some weeks (but doesn't smell at all) but I don't even have buds on my English lavender yet. Its a summer plant but when it gets going the scent is amazing. I also have a white lavender which has buds on.

Be aware English lavender can get very woody and they don't tend to last forever so a hedge can find itself with big gaps in it after a few years.

I've got a hidcote, French butterfly x3, pink lavendula, and just got one called a Vera which I think will be my fave, it smells gorgeous

I don't know what the varieties are called but I had some lovely lavender with very tall ears and one which was very compact and neat. They overgrew the space and got woody. I'm planning on replacing! The bees loved them.

I've seen today that Lidl have French lavender on offer!

Lavender is easy to grow and care for - sunny spot, don’t overwater and cut back flower stalks and a little into this year’s growth on 10th August each year. Don’t cut into old wood. They will come back bigger and better every year.

I bought 3 x lavender plants for fiver from LIDL yesterday. 2 are now in my front border so I'll see how they go!

I am no gardener, just having a bash and see what happens really.

I have 30 of the Lidl french lavender plants from last year. They've all done really well. I haven't lost a single one and they've grown a lot

I've found that hidcote is well behaved! I've had problems in the past with really straggly lavender! As said above, cut back in August and they are fine

I'd get a compact variety eg Hidcote - I've had English lavender in a similar shade/sun mix and it just yearns towards the light when it's in shade so it leans massively and grows straggly, so something smallish and with strong stems is what you need. Hidcote has that lovely strong colour, too.

Soil-wise, any old crap will do! Lavender likes poor soil.

As it turned out the garden centre didn’t have much lavender in, just 3 ones left that had seen better days, we took them, for a fiver each! We cut back the woody bits & planted them, they look better already. Fingers crossed they’ll thrive!