based on my experience with lavender in z5 ann arbor area .. my best advice is to find something else ...

its short lived... not fully winter hardy ... and as such.. not going to be a great border plant ...

i suggest 1 or 3 as a small grouping.. to see if you have any success with them .. before you go lining out 50 of them as a border ...

good luck

ken

I did this with Lady many years ago. It lasted about ten years before a particularly lavender unfriendly winter took it out, and at that time I was ready for something else. It's not hard to grow it from seed, and end up with a lot of plants very cheaply.

I've had good results with 'ellagance sky'. I started them from seed a few years ago and they made nice sized mounds (and bloomed) the first year. They are now each 10 - 12" tall and wide and very sturdy little plants. I have them in raised beds to help with drainage, which is especially important in Wisconsin winters to prevent crown rot.

Great advice... I have experimented with Munstead, Hidcote, and Mitcham Gray for the past five years, just to see which one stands up best to our wet and cold winters and heavy soils. So far Munstead and Mitcham Gray have made it through just fine, Hidcote gave out after the first winter. Mitcham Gray is a very long bloomer with very dark purple blooms, but it's habit is too open and sprawling for a edging plant. Munstead would fill the bill, but it does tend to get pretty large and it's flowers are a pale blue. It might look great massed (it wouldn't be 50, but about 10 in each of the four quadrants). It does bloom early, and than sporadic throughout the summer. From that perspective Mitcham Gray is great as it fills in the long summer months while other lavenders are already done. Maybe with a summer pruning its form could be improved... hmmm...

I looked at Lady and Ellagance Sky online, and I like them both... plus they can be grown from seed, so for once it wouldn't blow my budget to go big in the garden...lol
How far apart would you plant them to make a nice edging but not too close to crowd them too much? I am going for that nice "pillow-y"...lol

I started from seed the standard type you can get from the big box stores.. i think it's just english lavender. We are in the same zone and it has held up great for the past 6 years. It does seed down a little, so it has spread nicely in the bed. You do have to hack it back so that it doesn't become leggy after each boom cycle. It's in cruddy fill dirt that came with the house and loves it. So not a rich soil, and it stays drier.

i figured all i had to do was say its an impossible dream .. for everyone else to tell us its the easiest plant in the world to grow ... lol ...

i seem to recall soil drainage as important in its ability to winter over .... and where i failed.. was too good a soil.. taking them into dormancy too damp.. leading to root and stem rot ... perhaps you peeps who won this battle have just the right soil ...

ken

Hmmm.... Ken, I think you just deflated my bubble... the places I have grown my lavender successfully were close to the house (extra protection) with probably a lot of builder sand mixed in with the home construction (great drainage)... of course the spot I have in mind has neither of those... great...

Ok, what else instead of lavender? LOL Tidy, blueish purple flowers, low growing, full sun... great edger? :-)

Nah. My lavender is in heavy, amended clay soil. It's handled The Year It Rained, and this year without any trouble at all. The Year It Rained, the Albany station of the National Weather Service reported measurable rain for more than 25 days in December. I had honestly forgotten what sunshine looked like. It totally freaked me out one day when it appeared in my rear view window when driving. Balloonflower rotted, which I didn't know could happen. The lavender just sat there and looked fine.

What the issue probably is, is that lavender doesn't like acidic soil. Since high rainfall and acidic soil tend to occur in the same places, it's easy to confuse the effects of the two. It's only from places like here, which combines a pH of over 7 and an annual rainfall of more than 40" a year, that you can tease the two apart.

I seem to remember planting the Lady on 12" centers, as per the seed packet instructions.

Thanks mad_gallica... I think I will go ahead with my plan and try the lavender option. My soil is definitely not acidic, although it is on the heavy side (gotta love the Indiana clay soils). And since I can get my plants from seed I may even try several varieties to see which ones are better suited or look better. I think I will order that seed now...lol

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Btw, I did look at Highcountry Gardens and their Thumbelina Leigh lavender looks great... I might get a few and give them a try.

hey!!!!

i can just give you info.. that surely doesnt mean it should stop you ...

it would tickle me to hear back in 3 years that you failed wildly.. lol

but it would not bother me that you succeeded wildly either ...

all we can do is share knowledge.. the rest is up to you and your garden..

GOOD LUCK!!!!

ken

Does anyone know lavender can live at zone 7? Atlanta area? thanks.

Although our climate is ideal for lavender, and I do have several hedges of it, I still replace it after 5 years. I prune it back every year, to keep it in shape and looking healthy and trim. By five years it gets too woody looking and I start taking it out. It is easy to start from cuttings and I try to always have new plants up to gallon size ready to plant. Al

Ken trust me, it won't take three years to report that something went wrong...lol It all makes so much sense in the winter... and than comes spring and reality sets in...

I really appreciate all your input and suggestions. I love ya'll... and speaking of ya'll I was in Atlanta last week and seem to recall having seen lavender. I stayed downtown a few blocks from centennial park, so not sure if the lavender was part of the annual flower display, or if it is a true perennial. I would think that your humidity is a real challenge for lavender... it might be best to check out your botanical garden and ask someone there. Last time I visited the botanical garden it was in very early spring and I was ready to dig up entire magnolia trees in full bloom and bring them back home with me! But, like Ken said, why not give it a try... maybe we will succeed.

I had mine growing along my walk,I loved it but now after 3 years I lost half of them so now debated of getting more or forgetting about it.

I love lavendar as an edging.....I think this is Hidcote

{{gwi:266305}}

Have taken cuttings to make other hedges, but that is still a work in progress.
Flora

Wow! That is so cool looking, and just what I had in mind. Thanks for sharing the picture, flora. What is the small yellow spiky plant behind the hedge? Perennial foxgloves?

I find that my eye is always drawn to the slight curve in the hedge a little further in the background. Funny how movement captures the gaze. Great looking little hedge. Thanks again!

Seems you've decided to go forth with your idea, so I wish you much success. Personally, I would try something else, too. While I love lavender and could not have a garden without it, it's slow to bloom and is done by mid-August for me. I've seen those great catalog pictures, but it's not a look I could replicate with lavender. I'd try longer bloomers. For instance, as I'm looking out my window, the one plant that is still going strong is "Moonbeam" coreopsis. Not saying you should go that direction, but lavender gets large and woody and as I mentioned doesn't stay in bloom from spring to frost. I don't think it's the best option for edging. I personally would want a stronger performer.

I've had Lavendar 'Pink Hidcote' for 10 years going strong. It is at the front entry way, south-facing, average soil. I prune it very early spring to about 8" and it triples in size come summer. The pink is kinda dull, but the fragrance is the big draw.

{{gwi:266306}}

Well, I tried the lavender option, and it was a spectacular failure. By the end of the 2011/12 winter only half the plants were alive due to very mild weather and lots of rain, instead of the usual snow and frost we get. I removed the remaining plants yesterday and am left with a blank slate once more. Another option I am currently considering is Stachys Hummelo... it stayed nice and green through our summer heat and drought, bloomed reasonably well and seems generally well behaved, neither sprawling nor flopping. I am also hoping for a dwarf Walker Low catmint, but that may be a few years away... oh and I have had good success growing calaminta nepetoides... great plant, long blooming period and a great billowy look to it...

Anyways, thought I shared the results of my experiment. Ken, you were right. :-)

Lavender Munstead works for me, I trim them in October and they were still blooming. I have slightly alkaline soil
and I don't fertilize ...just a top dressing of compost once a year. They don't like to be wet, prefer a dry soil.
Hope this helps
Heather

I am also hoping for a dwarf Walker Low catmint,

"Walker's Low" is not a dwarf. I have heard good reports for this relatively new variety of Nepeta known as "Joanna Reed".

Here is a link that might be useful: Joanna Reed Nepeta

Marcindy, I just wanted to say that I also tried lavender last year and it didn't work out for me either. In my case, I started five different varieties from seed but they just grew at the most glacial pace and looked terribly scraggly. I think I didn't water them enough, out of fear of over-watering. Anyway, I ended up using Stachys Helen Von Stein as an edger. It's in our front yard and blasted by the sun every day from 2 pm on. I've seen websites that say it can't take humidity but it looked wonderful all summer and never had to be cut back. I gifted a friend with some of the plants because they got fuller than I expected and I needed to thin them out. But it's stayed in a neat row. It's planted in front of autumn joy sedum, agastache and caryopteris.

Rouge21 and dsb22 thanks so much for your feedback and suggestions. I will look into the Joanna Reed variety. When I said I was looking for a dwarf Walker Low variety I meant similar to the large Walker Low, just smaller. Believe me, I quickly learned how much of a misnomer that catmint is...lol

I have not seen Helen von Stein stachys used here in my area, but I see the regular variety quite a bit. Thanks for the suggestion, I will consider it. Just out of curiosity, how tall and wide does your Helen von Stein row get?

Well, I looked into Joanna Reed nepeta and it is advertised as growing between 36" and 48" tall, so it is a tad bit large for the front of the bed or as edging...

I also checked out calamintha and stachys Helen von Stein and saw some pictures where it was used in combination. Why didn't I think of that sooner. The gray of the substantial stachys leaves and the airy white flowers of calamintha looked stunning together... I think I will try that combo as an elegant edger for a bed of colorful roses.

I have tried to grow lavender many times and failed every time. I am tempted to try thumbelina Leigh in the Spring but might change my mind by next month.

My suggestion for a high impact purple edging plant is Rokey's Purple Aubrieta. I think that there is also a variegated Aubrieta. Good luck!