I'm in a different zone, so humidity takes a toll on lavender and it starts to lose sections of bloom as it approaches five years, even with being trimmed twice a year. I just finished pulling a lot of my old Spanish lavender (still have 5 large ones about to bloom). This time, I have bought Munstead for a smaller form factor and summer (instead of spring) bloom. My lavender are right in front of the house in the cottage garden (but I don't have a lawn at the house, I have a garden anyway). Our "yard" is a 2 acre meadow, so our setting is okay for the look of lavender, even in the awkward months. Here, in zone 7b, we trim our lavender at Halloween. If we forget, we trim it at Valentine's Day. Then, we trim it after it blooms. Hidcote is a great variety. Our local lavender expert says that (in our area) lavender doesn't like to be overlap other lavender as it prohibits air circulation. All of the lavender that you see in my photo from last April had to be pulled out this April due to black foliage in 2/3 of each plant. The ones along the roses were overlapping. I have now planted nepeta, allium, Dutch irises, hardy geranium 'Rozanne', heuchera, and phlox along the roses. I replaced the single lavender in the foreground with nepeta. What you can't see is another path (closest to the camera) that I've just planted with a row of Munstead lavender. Hope this helps. Cameron

Try Bluestone...no better reputation..just expect small but healthy plants. Since it is getting late in the year, I would wait on this till next spring, unless you can get it in the ground very quickly and in a protected location. At least that is how I would handle the small but healthy vigorous plants this time of year that Bluestone provides. Here is a link that might be useful: Bluestone

Wilting of the leaves on lavender is probably a little too dry. Again depends on variety whether it shows wilt from water-stress easily. Provence doesn't show water stress well in my experience and does better in a gallon or larger sized pot for me. The media(potting soil) plays a key role in container culture and I suggest going to the container forum and read about the many myths of container culture and why we fail or have success this way. In z7 provence should be ok but if you have wet winters this can be very challenging as it tends to get crown rot easily. Does the same in humid hot weather as well like I have in Texas sometime years. A raised mound or bed will help your lavender thru this most the time. Also I suggest using pea gravel or crushed granite instead of a (organic(wood leaves bark)mulch) as this helps keep the crown and lower leaves drier and lessens the chance of rot and fungal problems during wet periods. They can handle freezes in a container but if it gets in the teens for many hours it may be a problem for the roots to uptake water and so some protection of the container during these periods would be my advise(insulate the root area). I wish you luck and happy growing David:)

Brad - Heartbeat of Heaven is new here, has gone through one winter, Regency Heights has been here many years, a real good one. Debra - Diviners Handbook is excellent, it is hardy, clumped up quickly, I have had it about five years. It was a single fan. It also has been moved once, in its third year. Sometimes the blooms did not open all the way initially. I gave a friend a single fan about three years ago and his clump is now larger than mine. His flowers have always opened just fine. When people visit him, they want Diviners Handbook, it is very showy in a clump, high bud count (see photo). Mine is still in quite a bit of shade, but opens fine now with maturity, my friend's plant is in open sun on a large hill. Almost everything I give him looks better there, lol. I live in the middle of a forest basically, and have alot of shade. My friend lives in open fields of farmland on top of a large hill. It makes a huge difference with alot of daylilies. I was told some time ago that Curt Hanson daylilies need the sun. It does appear to be the case with some of them.