BY RACHEL FOSTER
CAMPUS AREA DELIVERY
TAKE OUT ★ EAT HERE
SERVING DELICIOUS NEW YORK PIZZA BY THE SLICE AND BY THE WHOLE PIZZA PIE
11:30AM-MIDNIGHT MON-SAT ★ 3:30PM-MIDNIGHT SUNDAY
$ 2.00
OFF
COUPONS GOOD UNTIL
MAY 27, 2004
ANY 18” LARGE OR
16” MEDIUM PIZZA PLUS
2 FREE 20oz. SODAS
10¢ OFF PLUS A SLICE
®
1 FREE 12 OZ. SODA
1211 ALDER
686-9598
RACHEL FOSTER
ON CAMPUS NEXT TO SACRED HEART HOSPITAL
Lusty for Lavender
Marvelous, hardy plants do well in the Northwest.
A
nyone with a sunny garden who is
looking to reduce water use should
be thinking lavender: not just one
token plant, but lots of it. This fragrant mar-
vel from lands around the Mediterranean
needs little care, tolerates poor soil, and is
more cold-hardy than that provenance might
suggest. Rocky or sandy conditions may be
ideal for lavender, but it is remarkably adapt-
able to ordinary garden soils, even in soggy
Northwest winters. Its only real requirement
for a long life is decent drainage.
At the Sawmill Ballroom Lavender Farm
on Hamm Road, Joey and Nancy Connolly
Blum claim to have heavy, clay soil: Planting
on sloping ground provides the drainage the
plants need. A thick mulch of sawdust con-
serves moisture. “We used to make a big deal
out of telling our customers we never water
our plants,” said Joey when I visited last
summer. “After this very dry year, we may
have to say we seldom water our plants.”
Established lavender doesn’t need irrigation
to survive, he said, but the plants will look
fuller with adequate moisture, and the quali-
ty of the flowers improves.
In small spaces, multiple lavender plants
look great laid out in severely geometric
designs. Alternatively, you can mix it with
other drought tolerant plants for a more infor-
mal effect. Lavender’s tolerance for dry soil
makes it a good container plant for water-
wise gardeners. The drought tolerance of
plants in containers won’t equal that in the
open garden, but waiting a few days for water
shouldn’t hurt. (Potted lavender can go in a
frost-free but unheated garage for the winter.)
While any lavender variety can be
grown in a pot, my personal favorite is
Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas).
The jaunty wings at the tip of every inflo-
rescence add color and character, and there
are several flushes of bloom throughout the
summer. L. stoechas is not as hardy as other
popular varieties, although many specimens
have lived through several recent winters. A
typical purple flowered variety is ‘Otto
Quast.’ In ‘Leucantha’ the flowers and
showy bracts are white with green veins.
Joey and Nancy Blum grow and sell
about 65 lavender varieties, both old and
new. Their farm is a great place to compare
flower and leaf color, plant size and bloom-
ing time. Gray-leafed ‘Tuscan,’ their own
introduction from a farm in Italy, is a vari-
ety of English lavender (Lavandula angus-
tifolia). Others are ‘Twickel Purple’ and a
compact old favorite named ‘Munstead.’
Early blooming and hardy, it’s about one-
third the size of most its neighbors at the
farm. Nancy says, “It has a lovely, soft fra-
grance without sharpness.”
English lavender self-sows, but many
popular lavenders are sterile hybrids. Crosses
between Lavandula angustifolia and L. latifo-
lia, they are grouped under the name L. x
intermedia (books sometimes refer to them as
lavandins). ‘Provence’ and the fat-flowered
‘Grosso’ belong in this group. The hybrids
tend to bloom a bit later, and foliage color is
variable, from green to gray. Lavandula lati-
folia ‘Silver Frost’ has foliage of the brightest
silver, standing out like a beacon in mixed
beds at the Lavender Farm. If you are plant-
ing lavender in masses, you can choose two
or more foliage colors to make a pattern.
In nature, old lavender grows irregular and
leggy, with the thick, gnarled stems exposed.
Most gardeners prefer the neat bun shape asso-
ciated with young plants. Provided they get a
full eight hours of sun a day, a regular annual
clip after flowering can keep plants that way
for years. It’s good for hedges, or anywhere
plants need to be uniform. Nancy recommends
clipping in July or August. Alternatively, you
can shear the plants when growth begins in
spring. Or you can prune individual branches
for a more natural look, leaving about one
quarter of last year’s growth.
Healthy plants in ideal conditions can be
cut back hard, even into old wood if you
can see buds there, but this should be done
only in spring. Nancy recommends doing it
right around Mothers Day. “Some varieties
push new growth right from the bottom,”
she says. “By late spring, if you can see that
new bun of leaves, cut back to it.”
Here is another tip from Nancy: If you are
not in production, don’t rush to harvest your
lavender. Insects, bees in particular, just love
it, and the plants are constantly in motion
from dawn to dusk. Nancy suspects some
bees sleep right in the plants! Bees continue
to work the plants long after the strongest
flush of blue is gone, and she’s learned that
even the dried-out stalks are full of fragrant
oil. She crushed a brown head in her fingers
to show me the shiny black oval seed; even
with the seed already ripe, the old flowers
were still intensely fragrant. So you and the
bees can enjoy your lavender for a long time
and still cut fragrant stems.
ew
LO-CARB BAGELS
FRESH BAKED
6 GRAMS NET CARBS
PER SERVING
Eugene
810 Willamette
341-1335
Springfield
5768 Main St.
868-1072
Sawmill Ballroom Lavender Farm (29251 Hamm Road,
Eugene) is a blissful spot in the country to buy lavender
or just visit. Open 11 am to 4 pm Wednesday through
Sunday, April to October. For details, call 686-9999, or
go to www.sawmillballroom.com
MAY 13, 2004 31