Perennial · North Texas care guide
Lavandula × intermedia
Nursery Pro tip: It dies from wet feet, not cold. Raised bed or slope, gravel mulch, no sprinkler. 'Phenomenal' handles our humidity best.
Silver foliage, fragrant purple spikes in late spring and early summer, and the best-smelling plant in the yard. 'Phenomenal' and 'Provence' (both lavandins) are the ones that survive our humidity and clay — English lavender usually doesn't.
Full sun, sharp drainage, and air movement. This plant needs a raised bed, a slope, or a pot; in flat Blackland clay it will die in its first wet winter. Alkaline soil is fine. Space 2–3 ft apart, not crowded.
Spring or fall. Plant high — the crown 2 inches above grade — in native soil cut heavily with expanded shale and a little compost. Root Stimulator. Gravel or decomposed-granite mulch only, never bark, and nothing touching the stem.
Weekly for the first month, then every two or three weeks at most. Water the soil, never the foliage.
None. Lean soil makes the most fragrant plants.
Harvest the flower stems as they open. Shear the plant by a third after bloom to keep it dense, cutting into leafy growth only — never into bare wood, which won't resprout. Tidy in early spring.
Root and crown rot from wet soil or bark mulch, the near-universal cause of failure here. Humidity-driven fungal dieback in a wet summer. Plan on four or five good years per plant.
Rosemary, Russian sage, yucca, blackfoot daisy and gravel mulch — a dry Mediterranean bed on a sunny slope.
Written for Rockwall's black clay, heat and winters by the Landscape Source team. Every yard is different — bring a photo by, or ask LS-Ai, and we'll tailor it to your spot.