Pennypacker, thank you for the links. Harwich is not too far from me, that would be a great way to spend an afternoon. Greening - I've pretty much tried every variety that I've ever seen for sale. I'm *far* from a lavender expert, though, I just grow a lot of it! My downfall is lack of record-keeping and losing track of which one is which. I DO have good luck keeping lots of hardy varieties going over the years, mostly by planting high for good drainage and never cutting the plants back in Fall; they are subshrubs and do better if cut back in spring after new growth is seen. My overwintering techniques for tender plants is pathetic, however. In the house, they're dead by Christmas. In the frigid garage, it's a slightly slower process, but I rarely manage to get anything out there to really recover and do well. For quick blooms, I think people recommend "Lady" but I didn't have much luck overwintering that one - I grew a flat of it from seed a few years ago, but there are none left unless I've gotten the plants confused. I've got lots of the old standards like Grosso, Hidcote, and Munstead, and several less common ones. The Spanish L. stoechas, which apparently are now often called French because they've naturalized in France, have frilly flowers instead of the usual smoother spikes. They are not, as far as I know, hardy even here in my zone 6 or 7 garden. I guess it's time for a book on Lavenders. There are a couple on the site that Pennypacker provided. Here is a link that might be useful: PP's link

g'day koeksoetie, mostly they are there because the ants bought them in so if you control the ants then you have some control over the mealy bug, and treat any m/b infestation as soon as you see it there is a homemade white oil recipe on our site. len Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Your sign in doesn't indicate your gardening zone so I don't know how much cold weather you may have left. You can keep lavender tidy and promote a full appearance by doing some shaping right after its stopped blooming and the flowers are fading, drying. Cut back just far enough to remove the spent flower stems. Do your more extensive pruning early in spring as new green growth emerges at the base of the plant - but wait until this growth begins, will depend on your climate. You may find yourself taking off as much as a third, cutting back just to the new growth that is beginning to appear.

I like your water urn, too. I commend your efforts on the project and see you've gotten some favorable comments. I hate to be a bubble-popper, but think there's something you should consider adjusting at some point. (I understand people are not excited about re-doing things ... me too!) Nevertheless, I think this project would be vastly improved if plants were arranged in blocks instead of lines. You are creating these very narrow stripes and I'm just being honest with you, that things will read artistically stronger if they are in some form of blocks. These plants are small so it wouldn't be hard to do a little re-arranging. I'm only talking about the LITTLE plants. Almost regret posting this. Sorry.