Lavender Lavandula LaDiva Papillon Big Night

Everything here is the marketer's or the wholesaler's own claim; no independent reference was read for this plant.

Size. The company that markets it gives 25 to 35 cm high and 30 to 60 cm wide. The wholesale catalogue gives about 30 to 40 cm high and 30 cm wide in its description, and a mature height and width of 30 to 60 cm in its profile. The fields on this page take the range that covers both.

Position and soil. The catalogue gives full sun and any well-drained soil, clay, loam or sand. The marketer gives full sun to semi shade, says lavender fares better with some protection from hot afternoon sun in warmer climates, and asks for a moderately fertile to humus rich, well-drained soil, watered to establish and then only if rainfall is low.

Climate. The marketer rates it fully frost hardy, dry tolerant and strongly tolerant of humidity, for cool to subtropical climates. It gives no temperature.

Pruning. The marketer says to dead-head regularly for constant flowers, or to cut back hard after the first flush, which it puts at mid to late December, then fertilise for a repeat bloom into autumn.

The company that markets it names cottage gardens, borders, rock gardens and containers, says the stems make cut flowers that can be dried, and says beneficial insects favour it. The wholesale catalogue names border, container and feature planting, and files the plant under hedging and screening and under herbs. No reference read gives a hedge spacing.

Two other lavenders have their own pages: the Italian lavender Avonview and French lavender, Lavandula dentata. The Avonview page also sets out what the references say of lavender in general.

The table above shows the sizes growers list, and the trade prices by size are on the price page; the HortOS guide to nursery pot sizes explains the sizes. A list may carry the plant as La Diva Big Night, La Diva Papillon Big Night or Lavandula pedunculata La Diva Papillon Big Night. The wholesale catalogue also gives it the common name French lavender, which other references give to other lavenders.

Victoria declares Lavandula stoechas, the Italian or topped lavender, a noxious weed. The texts read tie Big Night to that species. The company that markets it calls Big Night a Spanish by English lavender cross, and the North Carolina toolbox, an American reference, calls Lavandula stoechas Spanish lavender. The wholesale catalogue lists it under Lavandula pedunculata, and the RHS page for Avonview places that plant under Lavandula stoechas subsp. pedunculata. No reference read says how the declaration treats a hybrid. Stock crossing a state border moves under the state and territory biosecurity rules.