Lavandula stoechas The Princess - French Lavender

The Lavandula 'stoechas The Princess' is a very recent variety that brings a breath of real novelty to the category of butterfly lavenders. Its flowering, with a remarkable intensity of bright pink, is early, abundant, and fragrant. It starts in April-May, then renews itself in successive waves throughout the summer, favored by successive prunings. This lovely compact shrub, dressed in gray-green, evergreen, and aromatic foliage, is the most original of lavenders, equally at home in rock gardens and bordering flower beds, in well-drained soil, as in a beautiful pot on the terracce.

The butterfly lavender or French lavender, in Latin Lavandula stoechas, is a plant native to the western Mediterranean basin. It is a shrub with evergreen leaves that blooms in spring on siliceous slopes, poor in limestone. Belonging to the Lamiaceae family, this plant is aromatic but not commonly used in perfumery due to its camphor content. The variety 'The Princess' is a compact shrub with dense and tightly packed vegetation. Its quadrangular stems bear narrow and downy leaves, gray-green in color, with fringed edges and a pine fragrance. The plant rarely exceeds 50 cm (20in) in height at the time of flowering. In spring, at the end of each stem, a dense, short pedunculated, thick, and square-shaped spike is formed, bearing tiny bright pink flowers. This spike is crowned with several large petaloid bracts, resembling butterfly wings, of intense pink color. The inflorescence is highly visited by pollinating insects, especially bees. It is a nectar-rich plant.

Unlike most other lavenders, this butterfly lavender and its varieties require being planted in low-limestone or even acidic soil. They do require full sun and very well-drained soil (even dry and rocky). In sunny and warm locations, the silver foliage of 'The Princess' lavender will be radiant, and its flowers will exude an intense fragrance. An ornamental and Mediterranean plant par excellence, lavender can be used in flower beds, as a standalone plant, in well-defined borders, rock gardens, pots, seaside, and even as a low flowering hedge.

Properties: Lavender, being a highly honey-producing plant, contributes to the preservation of bees: the nectar from its flower attracts bees, making it one of the most renowned honeys.

Anecdote: In Roman times, women who wanted to secretly taste wine (a beverage forbidden to them) would chew a few sprigs of lavender to perfume their breath and deceive the vigilance of their husbands.