If there's one plant we can't get enough of, it's lavender. This beauty has got it all — signature fragrance, striking foliage and more uses than almost any garden-variety plant. The leaves and flower heads, both heavenly scented, can be used to make essential oils, tussie mussies, wreaths, wands, sachets and potpourri. Lavender also can be used to scent your bath or flavor sugar, cakes, cookies, custards and assorted desserts.
"It's beautiful, it's fragrant, it reminds us of Provence — even though we're botanically as far from France as you can get," says Mary Lahr Schier, editor of Northern Gardener magazine.
And there's the rub. Try as we might, growing lavender as a perennial is a hard bargain for most Minnesotans. While there are varieties that can winter over, they tend to be slow starters in the spring and lack the profusion of flower heads we want from this stunner.
But for lavender lovers, that only adds to its allure.
"There's a mystique about it because it's hard to grow as a perennial," says Theresa Mieseler, the author of "Beyond Rosemary, Basil, and Thyme" who ran Shady Acres Herb Farm in Chaska for decades.
But as an annual, lavender grows so well that she cautions against choosing a container that's too small.
"You wouldn't believe how much growth they'll put on in a year," she says.
Mieseler likes to pot up several different varieties in a long, rectangular container (2 feet long by 8 inches wide) or plant a single variety in an 18- to 24-inch round pot.
