Silver Edge Lavender
Lavandula angustifolia 'Silver Edge'
Height: 3 feet
Spread: 3 feet
Sunlight:
Hardiness Zone: 5b
Other Names: English Lavender, Common Lavender
Description:
A beautiful and aromatic flowering shrub covered with an abundance of lavender blooms atop lightly silver-variegated foliage, excellent choice for low informal hedging and in borders and formal gardens
Ornamental Features
Silver Edge Lavender has masses of beautiful spikes of fragrant lavender flowers rising above the foliage from late spring to late summer, which are most effective when planted in groupings. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its attractive fragrant narrow leaves are green in color with distinctive silver edges. The foliage often turns coppery-bronze in fall.
Landscape Attributes
Silver Edge Lavender is a dense herbaceous evergreen perennial with a mounded form. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect.
This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and can be pruned at anytime. It is a good choice for attracting butterflies to your yard, but is not particularly attractive to deer who tend to leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.
Silver Edge Lavender is recommended for the following landscape applications;
Planting & Growing
Silver Edge Lavender will grow to be about 32 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 3 feet. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a slow rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an evegreen perennial, this plant will typically keep its form and foliage year-round.
This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers dry to average moisture levels with very well-drained soil, and will often die in standing water. It is considered to be drought-tolerant, and thus makes an ideal choice for a low-water garden or xeriscape application. It is not particular as to soil type, but has a definite preference for alkaline soils, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.
Silver Edge Lavender is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its height, it is often used as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.