This one year old Spanish Lavender bush is ready to explode with color. The early spring dark purple flower heads look great with, and bloom at the same time as Rockroses. Add a few Golden Sage plants for a show-stopping contrast. Loved by bees, Spanish Lavender will make your garden hum with life.

Spanish Lavender blooms profusely in the spring and when it finishes it needs a good pruning. The result will be an attractive, fragrant, gray-green shrub throughout the rest of the year.

Native to the Mediterranean region and North Africa, Spanish Lavender seems to be a more suitable lavender choice for those who garden in hot humid climates.The antiseptic, piney fragrance of Spanish Lavender makes it an exceptionally fragrant landscape plant but not the first choice for use in cooking. English Lavenders, both Lavandula angustifolias and Lavandula x intermedias, are preferred in the kitchen.

Spanish Lavender is probably what the ancient Greeks and Romans used to scent their bath water. Indeed the word Lavender is from Latin lavare (to wash). Spanish Lavender is often referred to in older publications as French Lavender (which, today, is how we refer to L. dentata).

The photo above shows a variation of the purple Spanish Lavender called Kew Red Spanish Lavender. While not really red, the flowers tend toward the pink hues with the little "pineapples" showing as more of a maroon than the traditional purple. Planted here in a Mediterranean garden with Orchid Rockrose to the right and Cretan Oregano below front, this Kew Red Spanish Lavender is enjoying an ideal location. This garden gets water about once a week in the summer and is in full sun. Of course, watering depends on the location, soil texture and air humidity of each garden.

Spanish Lavenders make a great addition to our Zone 8 Fragrant Herb Garden Six Pack.