White English Lavender Plants

Lavandula angustifolia Alba: Pot Grown White Lavender

White lavender is probably the least well known of the English Lavenders. It never fails to surprise garden visitors - a bit like white strawberries or orange raspberries. The muted white flowers are held upright on long spikes that float above the foliage below. The flowers are as powerfully scented and as redolent of the South of France as any of the purple lavenders.
The leaves are also fragrant, long, narrow and the palest greenish-grey. They are so abundant the plant looks soft and billowing when left to grow into a mound, or trim and neat if clipped to a hedge.

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

• Use: Low hedging / edging, basic topiary balls & shapes
• Flowers: White spikes 
• Flowering: July to August/September
• Scent: Strong, lavender
• Leaves: Evergreen, aromatic. Silvery when mature
• Height x Spread: 75cm x 75cm
• Unappealing to deer, rodents
• Drought tolerant when established
• Culinary herb
• RHS Plants for Pollinators

Growing White English 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.  

Spacing a Lavender hedge: Like most formal hedging, plant at 3 per metre, 33cm apart in a single row.

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

If change is as good as a rest, then white lavender will recharge you visually when you see it combined with roses in the classic English gardening combination. Its white flowers are just as good for setting off the rounded, colourful petals and deep green foliage of our national flower. They will also prove essential for anyone who is trying to create a monochrome garden of silvers and whites.

The natural bushiness of the plant means that if you grow them as a hedge the leaves soon knit together to form an evergreen, silvery dividing line that wafts scent from both leaves and flowers, especially when it is hot. And lavender does like it hot; choose your sunniest spot for it to really excel and for those base notes to come through. Being a sun-worshipper lavender is designed to cope with less water than most other herbaceous perennials, so it will be magnificent in a drought and merciful if your soil is not up to snuff.

That having been said, if your hedge does encounter some shade along its length, your lavender will flower, but just not quite so generously. Alba grows slightly taller than Hidcote or Munstead, up to 75 cm, so it's usually best to plant it behind them. Left to its own devices, it forms a lovely mounded shape to provide a sinuous edge to a path.

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.