English or French lavender — which should I plant?

The lavender that dies over the first winter is usually not the victim of bad luck. It is very often a stoechas — the one with the rabbit-ear petals — planted in a cold, wet garden as though it were English lavender. Telling the three types apart takes five seconds and prevents the commonest lavender disappointment there is.

Step by step

1. Look at the top of the flower head.If it has two or more upright petal-like bracts sticking up from the top, like rabbit ears, it is Lavandula stoechas — sold as French, Spanish or butterfly lavender. If the flower is a simple spike with no ears, it is angustifolia or intermedia.
2. English lavender, Lavandula angustifolia: the hardy default.Compact, grey-green narrow leaves, simple flower spikes in June and July, the strongest classic scent, and reliably hardy across most of the UK. This is the one for hedging, for a border and for anywhere the plant must survive unaided. 'Hidcote' and 'Munstead' are the standard compact varieties.
3. Lavandin, Lavandula x intermedia: bigger, later, very fragrant.A hybrid between angustifolia and a tender species. Larger plants with long stems, flowering later in July and August, grown commercially for oil. 'Grosso' and 'Edelweiss' are common. Hardy in most of the UK but a little less so than angustifolia, and too big for a low hedge.
4. Lavandula stoechas: earlier, longer, less hardy.Starts flowering in May, often continues into autumn, and looks distinctive. The trade-off is hardiness — it is damaged or killed by hard frost and by winter wet far more readily than English lavender, and in a cold inland garden it frequently does not survive its first winter.
5. Choose on your garden, not on the label.A mild coastal or southern garden with free-draining soil can grow stoechas outdoors permanently. A cold, wet, clay garden in the north or the Midlands cannot rely on it. English lavender copes with both.
6. Note that they are pruned differently.English lavender and lavandin are cut back by about a third after flowering, in August. Stoechas is trimmed lightly after the first flush and again after later flushes, and it is never cut hard. Neither type will reshoot from bare old wood.
7. Use containers for stoechas if you want it in a cold garden.A pot that can be moved into a porch, a cold greenhouse or against a sheltered wall for the worst of the winter gives you the long flowering season without the annual gamble.
8. Get the drainage right whichever you choose.All lavenders want full sun, poor soil and sharp drainage. Plant on a slight mound, add grit on heavy ground, and mulch with gravel rather than compost. This matters more than the choice of species.

Tips

• Lavender sold in flower in garden centres in April is almost always stoechas, because it is the one that flowers early. That is a large part of why so much of it is planted by people expecting a hardy plant.
• For a low lavender hedge, use a compact angustifolia variety, all the same cultivar, planted about 300mm apart, and clip it every year from the first season.
• Lavandin varieties give the longest stems for cutting and drying and the highest oil content, which is why they dominate the fields in Provence.
• White and pink lavenders are almost always angustifolia varieties and are as hardy as the blue ones.

Common mistakes

• Planting stoechas as a permanent hedge in a cold garden — It is markedly less hardy than English lavender and a hard winter takes out a proportion of the plants, leaving gaps in a formal line.
• Buying lavender on flower colour alone — The species matters far more than the shade. Check the flower head shape and the botanical name on the label.
• Improving the soil with rich compost before planting lavender — It wants poor, dry, free-draining ground. Rich moist soil gives soft growth, less scent and a much shorter life.

Questions people ask