Think lavender looks and smells gorgeous? When you find out about its varied uses, you’ll soon be digging up your garden and creating a vibrant, green space. It’s easy to grow, doesn’t suffer from disease and has a long flowering season. There are more than 450 different types of lavender each with its place for rock gardens, hedges or as accent plants. Lavender also has a host of versatile uses from floral arrangements to essential oil and culinary delights.
All types of lavender are low maintenance but need to be grown in an environment that suits them. So it’s essential to choose your lavender plants carefully. Selecting the right one for your local climate conditions and where you want to plant them. Hardy English lavender is extremely tolerant of cold weather.Whereas Spanish lavender thrives in a hot, dry Mediterranean climate. Most varieties need at least 6 hours of sun each day and prefer warm temperatures with sunny summers and mild winters.
Lavender plants range in height, from small dwarf varieties to tall, sturdy hedging. It also thrives in pots on your terrace or a bright window ledge. This is perfect for lavender lovers lacking outside space or wanting then handy to use as tasty herbs for cooking. You can even propagate most lavenders from seeds and cuttings to keep them small for the house. They will soon be flowering beautifully, and you can prune them easily to a manageable size.
Enjoy Lavender – From Food To Floral Arrangements
Choosing which types of lavender plant to buy will usually start with celebrating their gorgeous blooms. The flower wands make beautiful displays and can be placed in vases with or without water. Gathering bunches of lavender and drying it means you can create fabulous scented potpourri, sachets and wreaths. Growing your own herbs of which lavender is one, means you can look forward to a range of benefits and applications as this perennial plant is useful for everything from cooking to fighting germs.
Culinary types of lavender, like English lavender, can be harvested to create fabulous flavours in the kitchen. Baked goods like biscuits and cakes, can be infused with the heady floral fragrance, along with hot drinks or summer lemonade. Make mouth-watering lavender butter or use it as a savoury addition to marinades and rubs for meat. It makes a delicious substitute for rosemary!
Making lavender oil is another use for this versatile plant, which has many medicinal properties. This essential oil helps to relieve tension headaches, sore muscles, and soothe burns or stinging sunburn.
Cut your lavender plants in the morning and harvest the potent sweet buds. Not only will you enjoy the gorgeous, fragrant presence in your home and garden, but its myriad of uses from soap to succulent steak!