I've been too busy cutting lavender...

to post about it! All the varieties are blooming right now. I'm having trouble keeping up and some of the plants that are throwing up reedy wands, I'm just mowing them down. I have over 50 bunches drying now. Grossos and Marge Clarks (the longest so far as they are intermedia lavenders) should be ready to cut this weekend. Lots of pictures and descriptions below:

So the picture above of the Grossos, and the basket is placed there for a sense of scale. The Grossos are less like a ball like the English Lavender, with the bulk of the plant staying low, and the wands/stems, growing tall and away from the plant. Grosso is the variety that a lot of the lavender fragrance comes from when you buy stuff. It has a higher camphor content and a strong, strong scent.

I'm excited to see what the Marge Clarks do this year. They were so scraggly when I planted them last year, I really wasn't impressed but they do have a beautiful form, we should know more about how they look this weekend.

Above is an example of what a plant looks like after I've mowed it down, it is about 6 inches off the ground now. I should really cut it down to four inches, but I am still a timid pruner. This is one of the munsteads that was a little puny so I just trimmed it up to put the time on some of the larger plants.

I took the picture above on Memorial Day, you can see some of the purple, I hope it will look even stronger next year.

Here is a view of the Cynthia Johnsons from the top. I think they may be my favorite after the Tucker's Early Purple. They have a very interesting pattern to them. Below, is a bunch ready to hang.

The Lavenders in pots below are mostly the ones I found at the Jesse Israel and Sons nursery in Asheville. The silvery blue ones that are shorter are Lodden Blues and the willowy tall ones that are blooming are Ellegance Purple (for some reason this year, the Ellagances are very popular and you can find Ellagance Sky at Home Depot and Lowes. Sky is a lighter purple.) The richer green one in the back is a Lavance that my friend M bought at a plant sale in Columbus and the little guys in the black pots are Vincenza Blues. I am hoping we will get some hard rain in mid June so I can plant them on my weekend off.

And I'll leave this post with one last picture, Molly supervising the drying in the family room.