Lavender is Blooming

Lavender flowers in a vase not made by me. Before I began working in clay, which was 13 years ago, I collected vintage ceramic vases. They have long since gone to new homes. This long low vase is perfect to hold the shorter stems of English lavender.

This is what a lavender flower looks like close up. They look delicate but they are actually quite strong and hardy. This lavender variety happens to be Premier.

Here's the gift shop at my former lavender farm, Springville Lavender Gardens, (you can read my blog about my former gardens by following the link) in California (lavender is in the foreground). Oh how I miss my gardens there. Here in Georgia I have lavender planted in two raised bins. One bin has two plants with pale lavender flowers with long stems. The other bin has six plants with shorter stems but dark lavender flowers. I tried growing lavender in the ground when we first moved here but it just didn't do well with all the rain and poor draining soil we have here in Georgia.

This is a vase I did make but it has lavender colored Buddleia or butterfly bush flowers. It's hard to see but on the top of this triangular shaped ikebana style vase is a dragonfly.

This is the upper lavender field at my former lavender farm. I planted all the lavender at my farm from plugs (baby seedlings). At the time I belonged to an international lavender farmers group; they all said I was crazy to plant plugs but should pot them for one year then transplant them. The plugs came 72 in a flat. If you know what a plug is you know it was a miracle all the plants survived. I walked around with a watering can watering each plug three times a day till they became established. After the first year lavender exists on very little irrigation. In the foreground is an orange canna lily with striped variegation in the leaves. I like mixing opposite color flowers together in the landscape. In this case orange and lavender or blue.

Here's a shot of the lower lavender field at my farm. In the background the taller shrub is Vitus agnus castus or Chaste Tree and beside it are planted Gaillardia or blanket flower. Vitus is lovely in bloom but it's a pain in the neck to prune all the seed heads after they bloom. 

This lavender colored bicycle graced the path near the parking lot of my lavender farm. I wouldn't mind having another bicycle like this to grace my gardens here. Maybe I'll find one some day. Probably won't be as inexpensive as I obtained this one though. I like a little whimsy in the garden, how about you?

Since it's summer you could try making some lavender lemonade, it's quite delicious. Follow the link for the recipe I posted years ago. If you only have a few blooms and you like white wine, try dropping a lavender bud in the wine, it's pleasantly refreshing..

I'll leave you with a shot of some of the flowers I sold at my lavender farm. Lavender, of course, but also other flowers; here are Coronation Gold Achillea and Shasta Daisy. Just thinking about all the work I used to do at my farm has me feeling tired and it's only 6 am in the morning. Yesterday I loaded the kiln and fired a bisque load and unloaded the kiln. Today I have a whole day of glazing ahead of me. Ugh, it's not easy getting old. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.