Downderry Nursery in Kent are magicians when it comes to Lavender – with a collection of over 400 varieties and a breeding program bringing new cultivars to market. Their Gold medal exhibit at Chelsea was a huge wheel of colour and fragrance – and in my haste to capture as many individual varieties in detail, I completely missed capturing the beautiful whole. I shan’t be remiss at Hampton Court Flower Show next month!
Obviously there are many more Lavenders out there than are showcased here – and their July display will be different again – but there is a huge choice out there and while I’ll recommend stalwarts like the compact sapphire Hidcote and amethyst Munstead, and the grey-ghost of Sawyers, and Vera for a larger specimen, I might well be looking more widely in future – and visiting Downderry Nursery too.
LINKS
Downderry Nursery … now oddly there’s a big gap between this link which says ‘About Us’ and the next one – can’t fix this/don’t know why … but do visit their excellent and informative website – and their Nursery near Tonbridge in Kent.
http://www.downderry-nursery.co.uk/about-us/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/3350268/Gardening-the-best-nurseries-around.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/11693455/Lovely-lavender-10-of-the-top-varieties-to-grow.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/9223270/Is-there-anything-lavender-cant-do.html
https://norfolk-lavender.co.uk/home/national-collection/
http://www.mayfieldlavender.com/
https://teddingtongardener.com/2014/07/23/mayfield-lavender-farm-brought-my-camera-this-time/
The Teddington Gardener 