Essential For Any Sunny Garden (Lavender)

Member Name: Karael

Product:	Lavender
Date:	11/04/01 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to grow, lovely scent.

Disadvantages: None

I have a couple of lavender shrubs by my patio. On a lazy, sunny day it is nice to just sit, relax and enjoy the perfume while making the most of the sunshine. I'm hoping for a lot of such days this summer having read a long term forecast promising lots of sun.

Lavender has been a favourite plant, prized for its perfume, since way back in Elizabethan times. It originated by the Mediterranean and is said to have been used by the Romans for its perfume and also as a medicine.

The plant is mentioned in the Bible as 'spikenard', which is now known as spike lavender or the species name of Officinalis It has had various uses throughout history and was considered to give protection from the plague in the Middle Ages.

It was popular enough for the Pilgrim Fathers to take with them when they set off for the New World in the seventeenth century. The flowers would have been picked and dried to be used in perfumery, toiletries and medicine. Lavender bags were made up to keep amongst clothes when in storage.

Medically lavender was traditionally thought to help with snake bites or those of mad dogs and was used to help relieve stress and anxiety. It was also made into a poultice for problems like headaches, neuralgia and toothache.

Today lavender has become more and more popular with quite an industry developing, centered in south east England and East Anglia. Fields of the shrubs can be seen and they are mostly used for oil of lavender and for the perfumery trade.

As well as for perfume lavender can be prepared for medicinal use. It is said to be good for easing nervous tension and to help digestion. Fresh flowers can be used as a tea, the taste is very much like the smell and is not unpleasant. Simply pour boiling water onto the flowers and allow to stand for about five minutes before drinking.

To relax and sleep peacefully it is said that a sachet of dried lavender, preferably mixed with
dried hops, kept under or next to the pillow may well do the trick. Tincture of lavender can help cold sores and a lotion of the plant applied externally can help sooth away any headaches or migraines.

I have found that lavender (or Lavandula) grows easily in my garden but it does like well drained soil and sunshine. It's a lovely fragrant shrub with silver foliage and spikes of blue or purple flowers. Plants may be used as individuals or made into low hedges.

Flowers required for drying should be cut just before they are fully out and old flower stalks removed in late summer. Any major pruning, however, should be left until the April of the following year.

Cuttings can be taken about July. Use twiggy side shoots of the current years growth. Pull these off downwards from the main stem, taking a 'heel' of the previous year's wood attached to the base. This fragment of older wood should be retained and trimmed, if necessary. These can then be put into a cold frame or simply struck in the open ground.

Lavender is, in my opinion, an essential garden plant especially if we are to have all of that sunshine I was reading about. My garden furniture is at the ready for hopefully some serious action.

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