Phenomenal Lavender Plants

Lavandula intermedia 'Phenomenal' Dutch Lavender Hedge Plants

Phenomenal lavender is a low-growing, evergreen perfumed shrub with beautiful violet-purple flowers. This modern variety's foliage looks better at the end of a rough winter than traditional cultivars like Hidcote, and it flowers earlier too! 

The densely packed flowers are held on long spikes, on a bush that's a little taller than most lavender varieties, but without the tendency to flop that many of the bigger bushes have. The flowers are deeply perfumed, with the classic lavandin scent of pot-pourri and soap; they're also a magnet for bees and butterflies. So it's perfect for spring and summer colour and scent, as well as evergreen winter interest.

Highly recommended for humid regions.

Browse our varieties of lavender, other evergreen hedging, or all hedging plants.

Delivery season is weather dependent. There is no point planting lavender out before nighttime temperatures rise as the shock sets it back, so it establishes slower than lavender planted later when the soil is warm.

• The smallest lavenders, in P9 pots, are never shipped before May. 
• We aim to ship the larger pot sizes from the end of April, but cold weather can delay delivery into May. 

Features

• Earliest Flowering
• Looks good at the end of winter
• Dutch Lavender / Lavandin
• Use: Low hedging / edging, basic topiary balls & shapes
• Flowers: Violet-blue spikes 
• Strong stems, don't flop
• Flowering: May to August
• Scent: Strong, lavender
• Leaves: Evergreen, aromatic. Silvery when mature
• Height x Spread: 75cm x 75cm
• Unappealing to deer, rodents
• Drought tolerant when established
• RHS Plants for Pollinators

Growing Phenomenal Lavender

• Aspect: Full sun, South facing 
• Soil: Well drained is vital, poorly fertile is preferable
• Soil pH: Above 6.5 is best. Likes chalk
• Hardiness Rating: H5 (to -15C)
• Suitable for the coast and windy locations
• Ideal for container growing

Lavender must have good drainage and close to full sun. It prefers poor soil and thrives in exposed coastal sites.
When established, they are drought-tolerant, but in their first and second year you must water them well, as with any new shrub.

Don't plant lavender out too early in Spring: the cold soil will shock it and set it back. In most years, this means waiting until May.  

There are different approaches to pruning, which is necessary to keep your lavender dense and beautiful.
The essential thing is to cut all the new, green growth down to two or three buds typically in early September, around when the last flowers have faded.
A light trim in Spring is optional, but recommended - alternatively, trim this early flowering variety immediately after the first flush of flowers to encourage a strong second wave.  

Spacing a Phenomenal Lavender hedge: Plant at 45-60cm apart: closer spacing will give you a solid hedge sooner.

Deer and rodents are not interested in lavender - they might nibble fresh green Spring growth to test it, but as the foliage matures they ignore it.

In Your Garden Design

A top cottage-garden plant, bringing in pollinators and filling the warm summer air with its clean, crisp, slightly camphorous scent, redolent of holidays in the south of France. Phenomenal has the added bonus of being an early bloomer, giving a second flush of flowers in late summer. It's a tall lavender, so give it space in borders and room in containers. Use it to edge a wide pathway, where you can brush past and release that stunning scent. Or plant as a low-growing evergreen hedge around a box knot garden, en masse with other varieties and colours of lavender, or in a gravel garden or borders, combined with cottage-garden perennials such as roses (pale pink looks particularly lovely with purple lavender), hardy geraniums, salvias and the like.

For a more contemporary feel, you can use lavenders in block planting to create a chequerboard effect. Try this with rich claret purple berberis, clipped low and neat, or with alternating squares of a white lavender such as Arctic Snow.

Read our full guide on how to grow lavender, with a quick pruning video.

• Good drainage is most important: Lavender tolerates cold weather, but it hates "wet feet" in winter.
• Heavy clay on a dry, sunny hill that sheds water should be fine, but light, dry, poorly fertile soils are ideal.
• If your site is not well drained, lavender thrives in pots.
• It needs plenty of sun to flower well.
• It can grow near the sea, good for windy sites.
• It's drought resistant after it has established deep roots, which takes a couple of years.

Prepare the Soil Before Planting

• The key is to remove weeds and to break up soil compaction, so the new roots can spread out rapidly downwards and sideways.
• Don't enrich the soil, only use Rootgrow mycorrhizae at planting time.  
• To improve drainage, it helps to raise the soil level a little by forking in plenty of grit and sharp sand, however, this is not usually practical beyond a small ridge or mound: growing Lavender in a pot is much easier than raising the level of a whole bed! 

Care for Your New Lavender Hedge

1. Most important: water thoroughly in dry weather for the first growing season. Soak the ground, and then let the soil almost dry out before watering again. 
2. Second most important: weed around the plants.

After the first growing season, lavender in most gardens should never need watering again.
If your soil is very dry and sandy, then continue to water in dry weather at the start of their second growing season.

Even with the best care, all lavender hedging tends to go woody and floppy after 10-15 years, losing its full appeal. When you see this happening, take cuttings to replace the old hedge, or order new ones from us. 

Trimming Lavender Plants

A hard trim every year in late autumn ensures dense growth, more flowers, and extends Lavender's ornamental life span.
Cut back each stem to about two buds / 2cm of green growth. 

• Avoid cutting into the older, woody part of the stems: if you prune yearly, you should never need to do this.

Deadhead flowers regularly to encourage more - it's up to you to decide whether to leave the last blooms on the plants overwinter.

Hygiene & Diseases

Lavender is very disease resistant, and diseases are typically indicators that the site is too damp and/or shady for Lavender to thrive.

• Prune off Dead, Damaged or Diseased (DDD) wood as soon as it appears.
• Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there are signs of disease.
• Disposing of diseased material is safer than composting it.
• Clean out Autumn leaves from underneath your plants, which can trap damp.

Did you know?

Phenomenal was bred in Pennsylvania, USA, by Lloyd and Candy Traven of Peace Tree Farm, and registered under the name Niko in 2012. It was featured in Better Homes & Gardens' 2013 Must-Grow Perennial List, and Mr Plant Geek chose it for his Shrub of the Month October 2019.
According to Lloyd, the discovery was quite dramatic: in a field of 30,000 dead or dying lavender plants, there was a single branch - called a sport - miraculously alive and healthy on a dying plant! As a veteran plant breeder, Lloyd instantly knew that he had found something revolutionary, and took cuttings with giddy excitement.

Lavandins are sterile hybrids, crossed from Lavandula latifolia and L. angustifolia. Their flowers are larger than wild English lavender, so have much more oil. It's the scent most people associate with lavender, most often used in lavender bags, soaps and other cosmetics. Its oil is more camphorous than the L. angustifolia types, so less successful in cookery, but still closer to the L. angustifolia profile than other lavandins. 

Although popular with all kinds of bees and butterflies, bumblebees are more frequent visitors to lavender flowers than honey bees: the long tubular flowers make it trickier for the honey bee's short tongue as it has to force its head right into each flower. Bumbles have it easier, as their longer tongues are better adapted to deep flower tubes.

Lavandin flowers are edible, but they have more bitter-tasting camphor than English lavender, so use sparingly.