Lavender is a great plant for hot sunny sites in the garden. It is evergreen and comes in other colours as well as the ordinary lavender one. There is white, pink and red and they all smell beautiful and the bees and butterflies love them.

I really like lavender stoechas (French Lavender) which has dark purple flowers topped with purple bracts. It is said to be slightly tender but the one in my garden has survived this cold winter.

They are easy to propagate by semi ripe cuttings in summer just put into sand until they root. Hormone rooting powder can be used too.

Lavenders tend to get woody which stops them flowering so well so they should be cut down slightly after flowering and the woody stems cut out.

Lavender can be dried in which case cut the flowerheads before they are fully open.