Purple!

I love the smell of lavender. I feel like such a granny for saying that, as I only ever seem to find old people who love that scent as much as I do. We have quite a few lavender hedges at work, and plenty of random lavender shrubs that were planted from leftovers from the hedge. The problems with counsils, they over order to the hilts then we have to do *something* with the left overs. This is my favourite sort of lavender, this is french lavender (Lavandula stoechas), you can pick it by the large 'wings' on top of the flower and the flat edge to the leaves (Spanish Lavender -Lavendula dentata- has serrated/bumpy edges to its leaves and small wings, if any, on top of the flower). French Lavender is one of those tricky things to grow and I personally think that if you can grow it, then the plant likes you. I tried for years with it and it just dies in my garden at home, yet at work we have the stuff seeding everywhere. About the only real problem I have with lavender is its a short term plant. They typically only look good for about 10 years, then they get very woody and die back in places. When they start doing that its easier to rip them up and start the process again.