Lavender
The Grower’s Guide

a book by Virginia McNaughton

Foreword by Joan Head

With their heady perfume and stunning visual appeal, lavenders have been prized by gardeners since ancient times. Lavender is a truly comprehensive study that enables the reader to research and identify more than 200 lavender species and varieties. With chapters on cultivation, propagation, pests and diseases, and botanical history, this book is as practical as it is authoritative.

Media reviews of this book:

“In addition to being the last word on growing a wide range of lavenders, author Virginia McNaughton also presents lavender history, botany, propagation, pests and diseases, classification, species and cultivars and information on lavender growing around the world.”

—Lynette Walther, Palatka Daily News, July 12, 2003

“It’s hard to put this book down.”

—Cactus Carol, To The Point, VoLavandula 75, No. 2

“The definitive book on lavender and its cultivation.”

—Multnomah County Library, Spring 2003

“This comprehensive study, with beautiful photographs, describes over 200 lavender species and cultivars.”

—The Wisley Bookshop, Spring 2002

“The combination of stunning color photographs and informative text, make this book invaluable to people interested in this subject. The best lavender book we’ve seen.”

—David Schiller, Making Scents, 2001

Publishing details:

Hardcover, 192 pages, 7.63"x9.25", 187 color photos, 16 line drawings

An excerpt from this book:

Dioscorides, a Greek physician, described lavender as having slender twigs and hair similar to thyme, only longer. The Greeks apparently used mainly Lavandula stoechas medicinally, making wines and vinegars from the spikes and foliage. The Romans used it to scent their baths and relieve their aching limbs. It may be that the Romans distinguished between Lavandula stoechas and Lavandula vera, using the first for wine-making and the second for their exotic perfumes. However this is not clear.

It is generally assumed that the Romans introduced lavender to England but it may well have been introduced earlier. No records exist to confirm this. During the Dark Ages, monks recorded their herbal knowledge and lavender thrived in their monastery gardens. Abbes Hildegarde (1098 — 1180), a learned female botanist, made a study of lavender and wrote of her findings. Subsequently herbalists such as Turner and Gerard (16th century) attributed lavender with an ability to heal anything from colds and headaches to limb paralysis and neurosis, as well as with use as both a tonic and a laxative. Lavendula stoechas was referred to as ’Sticadore’ and was one of the main ingredients of ’Four Thieves vinegar’ used to combat the plague during the Middle Ages. The spikes of Lavandula stoechas were still being used medicinally until the middle of the eighteenth century. Even today in France and Spain, fresh spikes of Lavandula stoechasand Lavandula dentata are suspended in water in closed bottles placed in the sun, for use as a haemostatic or for cleansing wounds.

About Virginia McNaughton

Virginia McNaughton formerly worked as Botanical Officer at Christchurch Botanical Gardens, New Zealand. She has written articles and lectured widely, and her book The Essential Lavender has served as the leading horticultural text on lavender.