Learn a little about the differences between French Lavender vs English lavender including a few of my favorite varieties. They are all fragrant and beautiful but when it comes to growing them, there are several differences.
I was recently fortunate enough to receive a French lavender plant from my sister-in-law. It has a beautiful fragrance and looks gorgeous. As a tender perennial herb, it has a plant hardiness to zone 8. This means that it can only grow outdoors in warmer climates so I will need to keep it as a houseplant. However, I can still move it outside during the summer season.
French Lavender
French lavender has the scientific name Lavandula dentata where dentata translates to "toothed" referring to the scallops on the leaves as shown above. It's sometimes confused with Spanish lavender or Lavandula stoechas.
Spanish lavender is native to the Mediterranean and has showier flower spikes than French lavender. The flowers grow on upright stems and their leaves are not scalloped like French lavender, but straight like English lavender. Sometimes you will see it referred to as Rabbit Ears due to the shape of the flower petals or bracts.
Neither French nor Spanish lavender is used much today in perfume and cosmetics but they are valued more for their ornamental use. Also, as I mentioned, both French and Spanish types of lavender prefer warm climates and are only hardy outside in Zone 8. For those of us living in cooler regions, that means that you will want to keep yours in a pot and bring it indoors during the cold winter season.
English Lavender
If you live in the north, you may want to plant English lavender or Lavandula angustifolia, a semi-evergreen perennial shrub. I have grown several plants over the years and it is one of the toughest plants in the garden. They are drought-tolerant and perhaps more importantly, deer resistant.
Most English lavender varieties have violet-blue flowers but there are also varieties that are pink or white.
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Two of my favorite cultivars are Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead' and Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote.' Both have pretty gray-green foliage, grow well in my USDA zone 5 garden, and bloom from early summer to early fall.
Both have pretty gray-green foliage, grow well in my USDA zone 5 garden, and bloom from early summer to early fall.
Munstead, named after Munstead Woods in England, the home of famous gardener Gertrude Jeckyl, is hardy to USDA zone 5. It has pretty purple flowers, a great mounding shape, and gets about roughly 1.5 feet tall and wide in size. This lovely plant is also drought tolerant and deer resistant.
In addition, bees love it, it works great as a cut flower, can be dried for use in many crafts, and is even used in cooking.
Munstead's cousin, Hidcote is pretty much the same except that it is slightly smaller and the flowers are a much deep purple color.
Here is some Hidcote lavender that I dried. I love the dark purple flower buds it produces.
Tip: Make sure you harvest it when the flower is in this tight bud form. Hang it or lay it flat to dry then you can use it for sachets or potpourri.
Note: If you want to dry your lavender make sure you pick the flowers in bud form. If you wait too long like the flower heads in the pic above and will not dry well.
My newest type of lavender is called Sweet Romance® from Proven Winners. Its scientific name is Lavandula angustifolia 'KERLAVANGEM'. I have three of these plants in my full sun garden at the end of the driveway. They have grown so well and as you can see they have a nice compact size and the blooms are very abundant and vibrant.
Growing English Lavender in the Garden
The important thing to remember about English lavender is that they like well-drained soil. Most can take cool temps but not soggy feet so make sure you plant them in an area with good drainage. They also tend to have trouble in areas with high humidity. To help them even further make sure to prune them early in the season by thinning out the middle of the plant, foliage, and flowers. This will allow for plenty of airflow to keep the plants dry.
What About Lavandin?
Lavandin or Lavandula x intermedia is actually a hybrid between Lavandula angustifolia and Lavendula latifolia aka spike lavender. You may have seen gray-green leaves and the beautiful long stemmed 'Provence' or the popular 'Grosso' varieties of lavender plants in the nursery. This type of Lavender has a strong fragrance and is often used in the perfume industry. However, they have more camphor oil making their scent a little sharper than "true lavender," English lavender.
Growing lavender no matter what type is a rewarding practice. Their beautiful flowers are adored in the garden by butterflies and bees and can be used in a wide variety of recipes, home decor projects, and crafts.
Barbara Chapman
Hi Patti!
Nice to see you again. 🙂 I love lavenders and I am trying to get my hands on more varieties here in North Texas. I have a nice Spanish lavender plant which is spreading its wings this year and which survived the Arctic storms surprisingly well. I covered it with a lot of hay and also a frost blanket. The French lavenders we wheeled into the insulated garage and one was in full bloom in January ~ crazy!
Thank you for this comprehensive list of lavenders. Up in South Dakota, in a drive-thru, there was a very tall type of lavender with puffs of lavender in a series of balls going down the stems. It may not be a true lavender, but it was sure pretty! If we get back up there to visit our son and DIL and grandson this summer, I'm going to look for that plant. 🙂
Enjoy your spring and I'm glad this post popped up on your blog.
Spring hugs to you,
Barb 🙂
Patti Estep
Thanks Barb, always good to hear from you. Lavender is a wonderful plant to grow. I do believe that the heat and humidity can be a problem so one thing you can do is make sure to prune it so that there is good air circulation in between the branches. You are lucky to be able to grow the French lavender outdoors. I keep mine inside but it doesn't flower much. I still love the foliage and the scent.
Eva Lundberg
I love lavender. I live in Turkey. I wanted to have some lavender in our garden and talked to our caretaker. He said he could buy me some. Yes he did. But I realised I needed some more but the man he bought them from didn`t have any more but he said he could get some more from somewhere else. After a few days there were new pots in the garden and the caretaker planted them where I wanted them to be. As I look closer at the plants they had teethed leaves but clearly lavendel. So now I have two kinds of lavendel in the garden, standing next to each other. It will be interesting next summer when they start to flower.
Thanks Pattie for you wonderful photos.
Patti Estep
Sounds lovely Eva. There are many varieties of lavender. I'm glad my post helped you. I could probably update it with more selections. Enjoy your beautiful plants.
SD
I have this plant and I live in Sydney-grows well in my backyard but am planning to place it in a long trough pot and place in my balcony facing south which gets lots of sun in summer but little in winter. Will it be ok? Is it french lavender?
I cant see all photos of the french lavender flowers.But the first photo with the dentate leaves is exactly what I have. It doesnt have rabbit year flowers though-bulbous shape with tiny lavender petals. dont know if it spanish or french?
Patti Estep
SD, it does sound like it might be French Lavender. You say that it's growing well in the yard so it may grow well on the patio too. For identification, I'd take a picture of it in bloom if possible to a nursery or upload the image to a site like Daves Garden -- Here's a link: https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/plantid/all/#b
Lori Heath
Thank you so much for the information! I am very new to herb gardening! I live in central Florida, zone 9 and literally 6 months ago, I would have told you that I have a black thumb. I am successfully growing oregano, basil, mint, thyme, lemon verbena, and a few others. I couldn't find lavender plants so I bought burpee seeds. I have planted them one week ago inside and am very hopeful. Can I leave them outside year round or should I bring them in? I will have to check out your other articles! I appreciate all the help I can get!
Patti Estep
Hi Lori,
Since you live in such a warm climate you shouldn't have to bring you lavender in for the winter. Make sure that there is plenty of air flow since you could have a mildew issue with the high humidity. You can accomplish this by keeping the lavender pruned as needed to allow air between the branches.
Thanks for stopping by,
Patti
Megan - The Creative Vegetable Gardener
I'm getting ready to purchase some lavender for the top of my herb spiral this season. Last year my rosemary grew really well up there, so I'm going to try lavender this year. I think I'll try Hidcote or Munstead like you suggested. I'm a fellow member of the Garden Foxes and I'm going to share this post on my FB page this week!
Patti Estep
Thanks Megan. If you had success there with the rosemary, I believe there's a good chance that lavender will do well too. You're a little colder in Madison but not so much. Hidcote and/or Munstead should be fine unless we have one of those arctic freezes like we did a year or so ago. That was the only time I lost some of my lavender but not all of it?
Thanks for stopping by,
Patti
Ellen
Thanks Patti. Your article was very timely for me. I haven't had much luck with lavender here in CT, but I keep trying. I saw what looked like Spanish lavender in Walmart the other day and thought about giving it a try. I bought a 4" pot of Hidcote from a local greenhouse a few weeks ago. It already threw a few blooms, which I cut off, trying to 'hold it back' till the plant gets a bit bigger.
I've been planting them in sunniest part of my property, which gets a lot of wind in the winter. Perhaps this is what keeps doing them in. I may wrap them in burlap this winter and see if this helps.
Patti Estep
Hi Ellen,
Hidcote and Munstead grow best for me in Southwest PA which is similar to CT. Not sure if the wind is the problem. A couple of other things to consider. Make sure they are in well draining, even poor soil, and consider pruning out some of the middle if they are too bushy. The Spanish lavender will probably need to be brought indoors during the winter.
Thanks for stopping by and good luck with your lavender!
Patti
Karen
I love lavender and finally have started it successfully from seeds last year! It took several attempts before I was successful, however. I still have them in pots, but will be moving them into the garden soon. I'm fortunate to live in zone 8b, so I'm excited to be able to leave it outdoors all year. I experimented over the winter, bringing in two pots and leaving the third outside. We had a very mild winter, and the outside pot fared just fine.
My plants are still small, but I look forward to beautiful, fragrant blooms this year and all of the
projects I can do with it!
Thank you for sharing. I'm going to check out your other lavender post too.
Patti Estep
Hi Karen,
Lucky you to live in a warm climate. You have a looooong growing season. I bet you are able to grow delicious tomatoes. Here in PA we have to wait until late summer for ours. I'm sure your lavender will do well. You know what they say, "First year sleep, Second year creep and Third year leap."
Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
Patti
Debra Howell
Montana is considered to be in zone 3 and we have many species of lavendar! I live in west central Montana and have enjoyed all the joy of have lavendar for over 40 years.
Debra
Patti
Hi Debra,
All I can say is lucky you!! What a wonderful thing to have access too!
Thanks for stopping by,
Patti
Kirsten
Interesting piece! I grew some of each this year to see the differences.
Patti
For me the English is easier to grow but they are both lovely. Thanks for stopping by Kirsten.
Esther
So great to learn about the different lavenders. I so love it!!! Thank you!
Charlotte
Interesting post! Recently I wrote a post about English lavender so it is exciting to read more about other species. The French lavender has gorgeous foliage. The Spanish lavender is only grown as an annual in Sweden but it is pretty.