Promising Plants Profiles

Lavandula stoechas 'Kew Red'  

Common Name: Spanish, French Lavender 
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Lavandula
Specific Epithet: stoechas
Cultivar Name: 'Kew Red' 

Life cycle: tender perennial
Zone: 8-9
Flower color: Bright, deep, purplish-pink flowers, bracts vary from pale pink to almost white
Bloom time: mid-spring to autumn
Growth: 18-24" high to 18-24" wide
Habit/Form: upright, compact subshrub
Light requirements: full sun
Soil requirements: well-drained
Propagation: hardwood cuttings
Uses: aromatic

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Description: A compact, upright subshrub with green-gray, evergreen foilage. Deep, bright pink to purplish flowers are topped by sterile bracts that vary from pink to off-white. The flower stems are shorter than other lavender varieties and the spike is cone-shaped

Cultivation: Prune the stems of fading flowers after summer bloom in order to encourage blooming in the fall. Plant in full sun and well-drained soil.

"Lavandula stoechas 'Kew Red' is the alternate choice for growing lavender in southern climates. Madalene Hill grows probably 12-15 varieties in a slanted, raised bed in Round Top, Texas. She says, "Grown in a slanted, raised bed they have excellent drainage, full sun and a 2-4 in. gravel mulch. They are the lavender for the South! We do have low temperatures, freezing rain, sleet, hail, occasionally snow, and long hot summers; that does not faze L. stoechas!"- Gloria McClure, Promising Plants Presentation, 2008

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Text and images © 2008 The Herb Society of America