The Many Scents of Lavender

Planting a garden is a blatant act of optimism; even the tiniest seed takes some effort to sow and any reward a harvest might bring is “deferred gratification” at best, and only an illusion if the  bugs or deer or gophers or rabbits get there first. So when the Covid inspired “shelter in place” protocols went into effect and Starr & I were stuck at home for most of our time we started planning and planting for an eventual lavender labyrinth. It must have been therapeutic to have a project to work on that could only be fully realized once the pandemic was over and we could invite people over. So now that Covid almost seems to be winding down here in Central California where are we at with our labyrinth and why have we chosen to create it with lavender?

Lavender is beautiful and it smells magical so you don’t need to be a deep thinker to understand why people chose to grow it in their gardens. And the fact that lavender has been reputed to be a calming herb that is useful in treating anxiety, depression, and insomnia certainly makes this a good plant to cultivate during a pandemic. But as apropos as a lavender bed might have been during a pandemic we’d actually been planting different varieties of the herb in our garden for over a year before. The calming effects of beauty and alluring scent are never out of style, and by the time the pandemic hit Starr and I had a good sense of which types of lavender would grow well for us here in Corralitos.

There are at least 47 different species of wild lavender  that occupy a variety of habitats from the Cape Verde and Canary Islands in the Mid-Atlantic all the way across Southern Europe and Mediterranean Africa to Southwest Asia and Southeast India. And then there are the myriad hybrid forms of lavender propagated by farmers and plant breeders.  In the popular imagination there are three main types for gardeners to consider; Spanish lavender, French lavender, and English lavender. Academic botanists will recoil in horror at such a gross simplification of the Lavandula family’s complex taxonomical issues. As the son of an Academic botanist let me say for the record that I understand a full and complete understanding of the taxonomy of the Lamiaceae remains elusive, but I’m not holding my breath while I wait for a scientific consensus. For our purposes today I find the simplistic reduction of Lavandula species into “Spanish,” “French,” and “English” forms calms my anxiety.

Spanish lavender, or Lavandula stoechas, is a Mediterranean lavender that is very robust and hardy and can grow from a tiny seedling into a waist high shrub in a year. This is the lavender species that was most likely grown or gathered from the wild during the ancient times. Lavandula stoechas has flower buds that are big, fat, and almost tarry with very aromatic essential oils. Most people believe that this highly scented herb got its name from the Latin verb, “lavare,” meaning “to wash,” because lavender plants were used to make soap or used in infusions to fumigate clothes. The word Latin “Lavare” is cognate with the modern English word “laundry” and the Middle English word “Lavendrye,” meaning “place of washing.” Of course the Etymologists are just as prone to controversy as the Botanists, so there are rogue wordsmiths who believe that Lavender takes its name from the Latin “livere,” meaning “blueish.” Whatever…..

“French Lavender” is a blurry term that can refer to either Lavandula stoechas or Lavandula dentata. I’m using it to refer to a Lavandula dentata variety that has a thinner flower bud than the “Spanish” lavender as well as a somewhat different scent. The French worked with Lavender species to create varieties that were especially useful in the perfume trade. Lavandula dentata has a more refined look to the stem and a somewhat less aggressive habit of growth than the “Spanish lavender.” It’s worth noting that the French refer to Lavandula dentata as “English lavender.” We’re not ICE agents here, so we’re not checking passports. We value the Lavandula dentata varieties for their scent and for the nice, long, spicy wands we can make from their dried stems.

“English lavender,” or Lavandula angustifolia, is yet another complex tribe of lavenders. Like it’s Spanish and French cousins, English lavender is a highly scented member of the Lamiaceae, or mint family, and compared to them it has flowers that are on the purple end of the spectrum. The English lavenders we’re growing are typically shorter in stature with a brighter blue to the flower petals than the French types. Our English lavenders are the most disciplined and compact in their growth habit, making them the most desirable plant to use  as a low hedge in a labyrinth, and they make nice, smaller bouquets. Over the last 100 years there’s been more culinary interest in lavender than in the past. Yes, long ago Lavandula stoechas was used to make spiced wine, but in these days the English types have been more frequently used to flavor pastas, desserts, or teas. Please note that drying increases the “potency” of lavender, so if you choose to cook with lavender you can use rather less dried lavender than fresh flowers to achieve the same effect.

I’m not a doctor, nor do I claim to have any medical insights; if the smell of lavender gives me a lift and dispels anxiety, then that is a purely personal issue. If you look up Lavender on the internet you’ll find any number of health related claims as well as warnings that no scientific tests prove the health benefits of lavender. I wouldn’t want to advocate for the use of any homegrown herb if it meant that a major pharmaceutical corporation might lose sales for their anti-anxiety products. The meditative virtues of walking the path of a labyrinth have not been proven by science either, so where are we with that project?

The first step we took was to circumscribe the outer rim of the labyrinth to be by cutting through the turf with a tractor. The labyrinth will have a diameter of around 80 feet, with a twelve foot wide circular center. The second step was to begin sowing lavender seeds in our greenhouse. We will use the so-called English lavenders for the interior rings of our design. While we’re waiting for our lavender plants to size up I’ve been developing the water system that will serve the planting. The old spring box that my Great Grandfather dug out and lined with bricks still works well to provide water and I had a new pump put in. I’m now in the process of digging the ditches that will carry the water to the drip system that we’ll use to irrigate the lavender beds that will define the paths of the labyrinth.

So far, so good. Hopefully the Covid crisis will end soon. By the end of the year I’m hoping to have the labyrinth finished. In the future we’ll be able to invite people to walk the lavender scented paths with us. And right now we’re enjoying a nice harvest on all the lavenders we planted before Covid when we were testing out our location and our soil to see if the plants would do well here. They do! And this week we’ve got a “Lavender Flight” special to offer, with a bunch each of Spanish, French, and English lavender so that you can enjoy their different their scents.