Lavandula x intermedia 'Bridget Chloe' PP 27,182 (Bridget Chloe Lavandin) - A vigorous selection of Lavandin that makes a medium small sized upright growing shrub to 30 inches tall by up to 5 feet wide (but easily kept smaller) with new growth green aging to gray and sweetly fragrant dark blue-purple flowers on 18-to-24-inch spikes from midsummer into fall.
This plant appreciates an open sunny location where it can grow well in well drained poor and alkaline soils. It quite drought tolerant and should only be irrigated occasionally – over watered plants are floppy and weaker. It is hardy to below 15 degrees F. This cultivar is noted to be particularly heat and humidity tolerant and resistant to Lavender Leaf Spot and the Alfalfa Mosaic Virus disease. It can be long lived if pruned hard after flowering in late summer – cut back deep into the leafy stems above the hard wood – do not prune in late fall or winter. Some recommend replacing plants every 5 years or so but we have old lavender plants in our garden that are much older than this. Lavenders are attractive to bees but not particularly to browsing animals – deer tend to leave alone but rabbits sometimes nibble it. This lavender is great in the garden and useful for fresh sachets, dried for potpourri and the edible flowers for salads or cooking.
Lavandula x intermedia 'Bridget Chloe' came John Hendon in Blairsville, Georgia, a hobby farm grower of lavender plants in the north Georgia mountains. It received US Plant Patent PP27,182 and it the August 2014 patent application it indicate that it is a vegetative sport of Lavandula×intermedia 'Provence' found in field grown lavenders of this cultivar in 2003, though some others note the differences between this plant and the lighter colored 'Provence' indicate that it more likely a seedling hybrid. Hendon in describing the plant notes that the vivid purple flowers have a sweet, rich floral fragrance and less camphor than its parent plant and is also has strikingly purple calyxes that 'Provence' lacks and its dried flowers hold their desirable dark purple color better than other varieties. In trials in the difficult hot and humid climate of southeastern US it has proven to be an exceptional plant. In 2021 it was awarded the Gold Award of Excellence by the International Perfume Foundation. We received plugs of this patented plant from Takao Nursery in 2023.
The information about Lavandula x intermedia 'Bridget Chloe' PP 27,182 displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |