Hartley Magazine

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Ethne Clarke

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Journalist, author, editor, Ethne gardened in England for 25 years before returning to the USA, since when she has made gardens in four US climate zones. Ethne now lives in Colorado Springs where she is meeting the challenge of planting on a prehistoric sand dune at the foot of Pikes Peak in Rocky Mountains. Best known for her books on the history of landscape and garden design, Ethne’s latest book, The Midcentury Modern Landscape, was published in the USA by Gibbs Smith USA, in the UK by Frances Lincoln as The Mid-century Modern Garden: Capturing the Classic Style, and by Ulmer, France as La Modernité des Années 50.

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The best old-fashioned flower for a great garden

Harvest lavender early in the morning, before the day begins to heat up, but take care as you may need to compete with pollen-gathering bees.

“This morning, when I went to look at my flowers…I saw again in my mind all the blossoms in the woods, the fields, the gardens, the orangeries and the green-houses; and I thought of all that we owe to world of marvels which the bees visit.”   Maurice Maeterlinck, 1909.

Not just the bees, I hasten to add. I wager that there’s an overwhelming number of gardeners who look at their flowers and swoon, and just like the bees, it’s lavender that is causing them the vapors.

Early September is a favorite time of year to gather in the lavender to make all sorts of delights, from pot-pourri to lavender water, or even lavender and lemon sorbet. Pour some dried lavender flowers into a stocking, knot securely and leave among winter woolies in a drawer to bring summer to mind in the midst of winter… and to keep moths away.

The ideal ornamental vegetable garden is made so by having lavender-edged paths through the beds. But even the smallest plot should give some room for a lavender plant or two, or more.

My name is Ethne and I’m an unrepentant lavenderholic. The index to my book Herb Garden Design lists 15 species and named varieties of this delicious herb. That’s a lot of lavender! To which I would now add the variety ‘Phenomenal’, which has weathered four Colorado winters, and every summer is covered in long-stemmed spears of heavily scented deep lavender flowers…and bees of all sorts. The bushes, easily 3 ft in diameter, mark the four corners of the mini-potager that is the center piece of my fenced in back garden (where the deer can’t reach).

Ornamental herb and vegetable gardens and their history in garden design were topical subjects during the early, war-torn years of the 20th century. But enthusiasm for the idea never really faded and had a major revival was fostered more recently and in large part by the English garden historian and plantswoman, Rosemary Verey, and her writings on garden making.

In larger gardens, lavender is a superb edging, from the dwarf sorts like ‘Hidcote’ and ‘Munstead’, named for two style-setting English gardens to white-flowered varieties like “Edelweiss”, or ‘Anouk White’ that has deep purple flowerheads topped with white ‘wings’. In short there’s something for everyone. The plan shown here, taken from an article in the September 1934 edition of the magazine ‘My Garden’. Written by Eleanor Sinclair Rohde, who wrote numerous books on the history and use of herbs in the garden and cooking, the plan was adapted by her from a 17th-century garden book, The Compleat Gardener’s Practice. The plan uses white lavender, English lavender, (Lavandula angustifolia) and dwarf sorts of lavender to edge paths. This would be an ambitious plan to realize, but elements from it could be adapted to make a small entrance garden to a hard-working greenhouse, where you could park a lawn chair and yourself to take a break with a cup of tea, sweetened, of course, with lavender honey.

Lavender farms are abundant in the southwest. The Denver Botanic Garden extension Chatfield Farm hosts an annual lavender festival.  Los Poblanos, located at Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, New Mexico, is an upscale organic-centered hotel, restaurant and shop selling all things lavender, while not far from Abiquiu, NM, there’s Purple Adobe Lavender Farm who offer plant sales, educational programs and information on growing lavender successfully; as a side attraction, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ghost Ranch is within easy visiting distance. Further west, in the California wine-country, lavender fields are a popular adjunct to famed wineries. In my experience, as a widely traveled connoisseur of landscapes-with-wine, the most abundant fields are found at Matanzas Creek. Located near Santa Rosa, the the approach drive to the tasting room is through undulating ribbons of lavender in various shades of purple.

At his Virginia farm, Monticello, Thomas Jefferson grew lavender along paths and among vegetables and fruit trees; the book New England’s Rarities Discovered by John Josselyn Gent (1672) described how early colonists brought plants of lavender, rosemary and southernwood with them, but as Miss Rohde describes, these delicacies survived “the long sea journey (it took 3 months…) but succumbed to the rigours of the New England winter.”

And then there are the lavender fields of Provence and the south of France…but I must draw the line and conclude by saying, lavender likes it warm, dry and prefer loose sandy soils that drain well – it’s not keen on wet feet – hence the practice of creating lavender walks in gardens. At Matanzas Creek, it was a marvel to witness the lavender harvest, which is done with as much precision as gathering the grapes. Care must be taken not to cut into the old wood of the shrubs, just cut flower stems and new growth back to within an inch of the old, and the shrub should hold its shape and flower well for years before it needs replacing. The popularity of lavender is centuries old, and that helps keep plant breeders on their toes, so, like ‘Phenomenal’ there’s likely to be one that you can grow, with a little devotion and attention to detail.
But isn’t that what we gardeners do best?
©Ethne Clarke, 2025

For more information:

Old Fashioned Flowers, and other out-of-door studies by Maurice Maeterlinck

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55591

Eleanour Sinclair Rohde  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanour_Sinclair_Rohde

Herb Garden Design, Ethne Clarke 1995 https://tinyurl.com/mtj5a4zh

Matanzas Creek Winery https://Matanzascreek.com

Los Poblanos https://lospoblanos.com/

Chatfield Farms/Denver Botanic Gardens https://www.botanicgardens.org/

Purple Adobe Lavender Farm https://purpleadobelavenderfarm.com/the-farm/