This past weekend was the Texas Lavender Festival in Blanco, a Hill Country town about half an hour northwest of us. There are six lavender farms in the environs of Blanco, and we managed to tour four of them. And did we ever see lavender! Row after row of lavender plants in field after field. And these are not puny little plants but lavender bushes often 18 inches to three feet wide. What a spectacle!
I have always had lavender in my gardens, various varieties with different characteristics, but lavender has been hit or miss with me. We had several good lavender plants in Connecticut that all disappeared one winter. I always figured that the soil which produced excellent rhododendrons was a little too acidic to sustain lavender, so I tried adding lime to sweeten the soil--with little success. When we visited Cape Cod in warm weather, we always stopped by the Cape Cod Lavender Farm both to admire the crop and to buy various lavender products. I never could figure how the growers there were able to produce a lavender crop when I had such mixed success.
Seeing lavender grown in Central Texas with its poor limestone soil was a revelation. Now it all made sense why the lavender capital of the world is Provence in France with--of course--chalky soil, just like the soil in our area. The lavender in Blanco was often growing in and amongst limestone boulders, just as in our back yard.
We bought a number of plants and plopped them down in the back part of the yard right among the rocks. Though we are having intense heat (unusual for this early in the season) the plants seem to be flourishing already. I think we may have found our crop! Best of all, the lavender growers in the area do not bother fencing the lavender to deter the deer. We may have finally found something (besides rosemary) that deer will not touch.
I have always had lavender in my gardens, various varieties with different characteristics, but lavender has been hit or miss with me. We had several good lavender plants in Connecticut that all disappeared one winter. I always figured that the soil which produced excellent rhododendrons was a little too acidic to sustain lavender, so I tried adding lime to sweeten the soil--with little success. When we visited Cape Cod in warm weather, we always stopped by the Cape Cod Lavender Farm both to admire the crop and to buy various lavender products. I never could figure how the growers there were able to produce a lavender crop when I had such mixed success.
Seeing lavender grown in Central Texas with its poor limestone soil was a revelation. Now it all made sense why the lavender capital of the world is Provence in France with--of course--chalky soil, just like the soil in our area. The lavender in Blanco was often growing in and amongst limestone boulders, just as in our back yard.
We bought a number of plants and plopped them down in the back part of the yard right among the rocks. Though we are having intense heat (unusual for this early in the season) the plants seem to be flourishing already. I think we may have found our crop! Best of all, the lavender growers in the area do not bother fencing the lavender to deter the deer. We may have finally found something (besides rosemary) that deer will not touch.
1 comment:
Interestingly, rosemary and lavender are very abundant here as well and bloom all year round. They both smell wonderful especially after they have been trimmed.
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