This plant appreciates an open sunny location and is quite drought tolerant, needing only occasional to infrequent irrigation once established – over watered plants are floppy and weaker and dislikes overly wet conditions. It is cold hardy to below 15 degrees F and is noted at being able to handle temperatures in USDA Zone 5. As with other Lavandin it should prove tolerant to well-draining poor and alkaline soils. The Lavandin can be long lived in the garden if pruned hard after flowering in late summer – cut back deep into the leafy stems above the hard wood but do not prune in late fall or winter. Some recommend replacing plants every 5 years or so but we have older Lavandin varieties in our garden that are much older than this. Lavender flowers are attractive to bees and butterflies, but plants are not particularly to browsing animals – deer tend to leave alone but rabbits sometimes nibble it. Like other Lavandin, it should prove great in the garden and useful for fresh sachets, dried for potpourri and the edible flowers for salads or cooking.

This plant is a cultivar of Lavandin, Lavandula x intermedia. Lavandin is considered to be a naturally occurring hybrid between English Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia, and Spike Lavender, Lavandula latifolia. It was selected by Lloyd and Candy Traven of Peace Tree Farms of Kintnersville Pennsylvania in 2012 who noted this sport (a whole plant mutation) growing in a crop of Lavandula x intermedia 'Grosso' at their nursery. It received US Plant Patent PP24,193 in January 2014 using the cultivar name 'Niko' after one of their customers, Niko Christou but uses Phenomenal as its marketing name. It was selected for its compact and rounded habit, winter hardiness and disease resistance (particularly to the fungus Pythium sp.) and has since shown good tolerance to extreme heat and humidity. It was featured in the March/April 2014 issue of Fine Gardening Magazine, and Better Homes & Gardens named it a "Must Grow Perennial" for 2013.

We have grown this cultivar since 2015 and also grow the other Lavandin cultivars Lavandula x intermedia 'Alba', 'Grosso' and 'Provence', Lavandula intermedia 'Riverina Thomas', Lavandula intermedia 'Super', and in the past grew a variegated variety called Lavandula intermedia Silver Edge. 

The information about Lavandula x intermedia Phenomenal [Niko'] PP24,193 that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.