How to Grow English Lavender

Tips on how to grow English lavender with information on cultivars, a growing guide, pruning, and how to create new lavender plants for free. I have lots of lavender growing in my garden, and I hope my tips will help you grow it too!

There are so many reasons to grow English lavender, and it can be pretty easy, too. You can plant it in hedges, on its own in a pot, or scattered throughout the garden as feature plants. They can create defined edges and borders in a garden, and you can use their flowers in everything from food recipes to crafts and handmade skincare. Another reason to grow lavender is its ability to draw pollinators—when the flowers open in summer, they’re humming with bees.

I grow several types of English lavender, including hybrids, and have learned a few things about them over the years. Use my tips below to learn how to grow English lavender in your garden. Plant them in the right spot, and you’ll have years of sweet-scented foliage and flowers that you and your local wildlife will love.

English Lavender at a Glance

• Evergreen perennial
• Green to gray leaves with typically purple flowers
• Flowers are deeply fragrant
• It is one of 47 different species of lavender
• Plants live up to fifteen years
• Within the species are about 40 different cultivars
• Can be grown by seed and through propagation
• English lavender is the best for lavender for skincare and food recipes

47 Species of Lavender

Did you know that there are 47 species of lavender? English lavender is just one of them. Within the species are over 40 different cultivars with flowers that range in color from light purple to deep blue-purple to pale pink.

There are a few names for English lavender, including common lavender and its scientific name, Lavandula angustifolia. Contrary to its more usual name, it’s not native to the British Isles and comes from the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Places with long, hot summers and wet winters. Even so, it thrives in Britain and other temperate regions, and some of the most popular varieties include:

• ‘Hidcote’, a compact dwarf variety with deep purple flowers
• ‘Little Lottie’, grey-green foliage and pale pink flowers
• ‘Vera’, an old-fashioned variety with dark lavender-blue flowers
• ‘Munstead’, a loose light purple flower that was Gertrude Jekyll’s favorite
• Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso’, a hybrid lavender that’s big and beautiful with loads of flowers

However, most of the time, you’ll find English lavender listed as just that without a cultivar name. It’s a little frustrating if you want to know the cultivar, but I have several in my garden that are ‘nameless’. I’m happy with them and have even propagated them to create new plants.

English Lavender Growing Guide

Lavender is easy to grow if you give it the right climate, soil, and sun exposure. You can even push the envelope on some of these, as I have successfully grown lavender in acidic clay soil.

• Grows as a perennial in zones 5-8
• Prefers full sun
• Well-drained neutral to alkaline soil
• Does not like wet feet or humidity
• Plant height 1-3 feet with a 1-5 foot spread
• Flowers in mid to late summer

Best Soil Type for English Lavender

My garden wouldn’t be complete without lavender! It’s beautiful, bees love it, and it’s so useful in herbal skincare. As long as you provide it with the right type of soil and situation, it will grow in most gardens. It prefers living in a sunny location with free-draining soil and an alkaline pH (6.7-7.3). Because of this, you’ll often see it growing very happily in poor chalky soil. When I lived in London, I would often walk past a front garden with the most amazing lavender growing in it. It grew on the other side of a low, rundown stone wall, which was undoubtedly giving it shelter and the right soil conditions.

If your soil is more acidic, you can amend the site with garden lime to bring up the pH. English lavender also prefers being on the drier side, so make sure it has plenty of drainage. If you have heavy soil, consider planting your lavender along a free-draining ridge. You create this by adding compost, grit, gravel, and stones to the soil and drawing it up into a mound.

The Ideal Climate for English Lavender

English lavender grows well in temperate to arid climates and prefers dry feet to wet. In fact, it can fail to thrive if it’s watered too much. Humidity is also a downer for English lavender, and though it likes growing in hot climates, it doesn’t do well in humid ones.

Although some varieties of lavender are less hardy, English lavender can withstand cold winter temperatures, down to -10°F (-23°C). That makes it a hardy evergreen perennial that will grow in zones 5-9. Most English lavender varieties don’t thrive in zones 10 and above, but I’ve heard of people who have had success. I think it’s a matter of getting a single plant and growing it, to see for sure. Don’t invest in more than that, in case English lavender sulks in your climate.

Tips on Planting English Lavender

You can get lavender plants easily from most garden centers, but you can also propagate them the year before you want to plant. It’s possible to grow lavender from seed, but it will take a year or two of growing before it’s ready to plant in the garden.

Right, let’s say you’ve found the right place in the garden for English lavender: it’s in full sun, the soil is the right pH and free-draining, and it’s the middle to end of spring. It’s time to plant.

Space standard-sized lavender varieties a foot apart to create a hedge, and three feet apart for an airier planting. If you’re planting dwarf types, you can place them a little closer together since they’re naturally smaller plants. Plant them in a hole at the same level they were in their pot and water them in well. Keep the soil moist until they’re established, but after that, they most likely won’t need watering ever again.

How to Prune English Lavender

Many people are afraid to prune their English lavender, but it’s quite easy. The best time to do it is after flowering but before the plant produces new growth. That’s why late summer to early autumn is when I cut and shape my plants. I use secateurs and take off no more than about a third of the green growth. Others are more severe with their pruning and have success, but if you prune outside of that timeframe or take too much off, you can kill the plant or reduce flowering the following year.

My technique is simple. After the lavender flowers have bloomed and look a bit dead, I cut the spent flower stalks down to where the leaves start. Run your fingers along the stem until you reach the first of these fresh, new leaves. Cut just above it. When I’m done, I’ll shape the plants into tidy balls and remove any stems or branches that look brown and dead. That’s all I do, and my lavender looks great.

How to Grow English Lavender in Containers

If you don’t have space in the garden or live in a climate with very cold winters, you can grow lavender in containers. Big ones, though, since they like room to spread their roots. I don’t currently have any lavender in pots, but they’ve done okay. Not as well as they do in an open-ground position, but if you have no choice, it’s a good option. Moving your lavender undercover over winter is how you keep it alive through very harsh conditions.

If you want to plant English lavender in a pot, use a free-draining mixture such as one that incorporates one part vermiculite or grit with two parts multi-purpose compost. Top dress with grit if you’d like to pretty up the surface and keep weed seeds from sprouting.

You can optionally feed with an organic slow-release feed in the summer after the first couple of years. It probably won’t need it, but if it’s looking sad, it may be that it needs a little something extra. Rule out that you’re not over-watering it, though, first. The symptoms of over-watering look similar to being nutrient-deficient.

When growing English lavender in pots, keep it watered through the warmer months but allow it to dry out in the winter. Remember that it doesn’t like wet feet, and cooler temperatures can lead to the soil inside staying wet. If you have a greenhouse, place your potted lavender inside for the winter — they’ll be happier in the slightly warmer temperature.

More Lavender Ideas to Explore

• How to make lavender bath bombs
• Simple lavender soap recipe
• Lavender and honey cookie recipe
• 50+ Flowers and trees to grow in a bee-friendly garden