Try fragrant lavender for sunny pathsides and patio containers

With its pleasant scent and delicate flowers, Lavender has grown into a much-loved perennial in garden beds throughout the country. Choose varieties that will work for your climate and growing conditions and you’ll be rewarded with long-lasting blooms on mature, mounding plants. Spanish lavenders with their two-toned blooms are perfect for containers, while some aromatic English lavenders can survive a tough northern winter. French lavenders, with their showy foliage, add just the right touch of grace to ornamental flower gardens. Lavenders do prefer full sun, low humidity, and gritty soil, but many can - and do - grow them with ease.