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Information by: The Plant Nerd Inc.        Photographer: Susan Frommer/Hunter

Description

Lavandula 'Goodwin Creek Gray' is an evergreen shrub. This dense foliaged plant grows to 5' high and 3'-4' wide, with silvery leaves that are toothed at the tips. Deep violet-blue flowers from spring to late fall.

Maintenance Tips

Lavandula 'Goodwin Creek Grey' is a very large lavender that matures into a dome, 5' tall and wide. The tall flower stalks emerge in the spring and are very attractive to bees and butterflies. This is one of the most dramatic of the lavenders and is frequently found in California native gardens. To keep the maintenance as low as possible, plant it in a sunny location with the space to reach its full mature size. This plant is described in many publications as only growing to 3' tall, so it is often not given enough space to grow and becomes a victim to sheering or other poor pruning habits. Once it is poorly pruned and loses its natural shape, it rarely returns to the lovely dome it could have been. Once the flowers have faded, the spent stalks can be deadheaded to keep the shrub looking tidy and encourage additional flowers. Woody shrubs tend to become dense with lots of cross-branching, so thinning out the branching and allowing sunlight to the interior will benefit the plant and will encourage new, green growth. This shrub can take more aggressive hedging, cutting back by about a third in the winter to keep the nice dome shape.