Lavandula dentata (French Lavender) - An attractive and bushy lavender, growing to 3 to 4 feet tall by 5 feet wide with pungently aromatic gray-green toothed-margined leaves. The pale lavender-blue flowers on short spikes rising a foot above the foliage can be present nearly year-round with peak flowering in fall and early winter.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil where it has low water needs and it is hardy to about 20 degrees F. This is a great long lived shrubby lavender species that forms dense mound holding attractive flowers rising just above the foliage but unlike the English Lavender varieties these flowers are not recommended for human consumption.
Lavandula dentata comes from the Mediterranean Sea basin primarily in Europe from Spain, Gibraltar and the Balearic Islands, in North Africa in Morocco an Algeria east to the Arabian Peninsula and south to Ethiopia and it was long ago on Madeira and the Canary Islands. The name for the genus is from the Latin 'lavare' or 'lavo' meaning "to wash" in reference to use of infusions of the plants. The specific epithet is a reference to the dentate margins of the leaves. This plant is commonly called Spanish Lavender in Europe and also is called Fringed Lavender. We have sold this plant continuously since 1986 and also grow the gray foliage form Lavandula dentata var. candicans.
This information about Lavandula dentata displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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