Posts tagged as: plant favourite

Lavendual dentata or ‘French Lavender’ is a spreading shrub to 1m tall and 1.5m wide. Its leaves are dark green, straight, and about 4cm long. Its flowers are fragranced, purple in colour, and are borne on spikes which are produced in mid and late summer. So if you plant it now you should have flowers in February/March.

I ‘visited the interior’ recently and was reminded of a very useful, underutilised and pretty plant genus, the Eremophilas. These are extraordinary Australian shrubs able to withstand months without rain, nutrient deficient soils, frost and a wide range of soil types. Their natural distribution is almost all of Australia with the exception of the tropics and southern Victoria and Tasmania. They favour low rainfall areas so along the coast they should be in the drier, sunny and well drained parts of the garden.

The recent cold blast of wintery weather has put me in mind of southern climes, warm furry pajamas and this plant. Lambs Ear is a perennial ground cover with white furry leaves that are a silky smooth to touch and, for those of us who havent handled lambs, are quite true to their common name.