Lavandula intermedia Walburtons Silver Edge - Lavandin

Lavandula intermedia Walberton's Silver Edge is a variety of hybrid lavender of modest size that stands out for its unique foliage. Each leaf is rounded, grey-green and bordered in white, giving the plant a snowball-like appearance. Bright all year round, it has beautiful fragrant flowers in summer, with long spikes of lavender-blue flowers, carried on long stems, somewhat scattered on its dense foliage. It is an evergreen low shrub ideal for dry or rocky, well-drained soils, in a sunny position.

The genus Lavandula belongs to the Lamiaceae family. This hybrid is obtained by crossing L. angustifolia and L. latifolia. These two species are found in the wild in the same medium mountain environment and naturally crossbreed. They have given rise to numerous cultivars, all easy to plant in the garden, tolerant of limestone. The 'Walburton's Silver Edge' hybrid forms a beautiful round cushion, with dense vegetation, reaching 70 cm (28in) in flower, 40 cm (16in) for the foliage, and a diameter of 50 cm (20in). Its evergreen leaves, wider and rounder than those of other species and varieties, are variegated with grey and white. They are even lighter when the soil is dry and the climate is hot. On the other hand, in a cool climate, what the plant gains in foliage and robustness, it loses in colour and fragrance intensity. This variety has summer flowers in July-August. Long, thin stems emerge well above the foliage , carrying long spikes of medium blue, typically lavender-blue flowers, which are very honey-scented.

Lavender is synonymous with holidays. It evokes the sun, the song of cicadas, arid and fragrant hillsides , and it is a part of this atmosphere that we try to capture in our gardens. Lavenders have many different uses. In nature, these plants always live in poor, rocky, dry, and well-drained environments. It is only natural that they will find their place in rock gardens alongside rockroses, sunroses, and wormwoods. Large groupings can be created on large, well-drained slopes by planting different lavender varieties, whose volumes, flowerings, and foliage will create many undulations. Dry ground perennials with bright or soft flowers can be mixed in to punctuate the landscape: Linaria 'Canon Went', Salvia jamensis, gaillardias, and Hesperaloe parviflora with its red spikes, adding Convolvulus althaeoides, a bindweed that will run everywhere between and within the cushions without suffocating them. A lavender border will be prettier when overhanging a wall, with aubrietas, for example.