Happy Planting - Info on Lavender Purchase

5/30/2020

Finally! Finally! Our replacement plants have arrived! We lost about 70 plants last year with our polar vortex winter/super wet spring. I really wanted to switch those Phenomenal plants - by far they were the largest variety to die - with more English lavender. While I love intermediate because of the long stems for floral design, my true love is for the English lavender, which are shorter stemmed but they are generally more vibrant in color. I will post some pictures of English vs. Intermediate Lavender at the end of the post.

We still have quite a few Grosso plants (intermediate) which I do like. It's odd because I have always been told Phenomenal is hardy to zone 3 and handles winter better than most intermediates. I found the opposite to be true last year. I salvaged most of the Grosso and some of the Phenomenal. I decided to not replace the Phenomenal plants and replace with English lavender instead. Almost all of our English lavender survived the poor weather last year.

I do usually purchase plants in state or locally if possible. However, I wanted a very particular type of lavender - Royal Velvet- that I have had difficulty finding around here. Some other lavender farms have it in Michigan, but because of the number of plants I needed to purchase I wanted a wholesale price. Back in the fall 2019 I pre-ordered plants from Victor's lavender. If ordering frin Victor's, it does usually require advance ordering for larger wholesale orders. If you want plants for fall planting, you should order now. If you want plants for next spring order in early fall.  Plants were shipped and they arrived in wonderful condition. I am already so impressed with the look of Royal Velvet!  I have always had a good experience ordering from Victor's in the past.

There is a new perennial greenhouse in Carleton, Michigan called Perennial Beginnings. They have a lot of Munstead (English lavender) they recently posted for sale. I believe my first lavender plant was a Munstead and they are VERY hardy and great culinary lavender too. I purchased some yarrow and some other perennials from Perennial Beginnings. They are very responsive on their business page and the plants are nice.

Another options for larger orders for those looking is Telly's in Shelby Township. When we started our lavender field at our new house in Frenchtown Twp in 2017, we ordered over 300 plants from Telly's and picked them up. They were very good quality and price.

Last shout out was to Diaz Greenhouse on Exeter Road in Carleton. This year was my first time shopping with them. I went out to pick up curbside online orders from them a few weeks ago. They sell most annuals, baskets, flats, and also veggies. I ordered all my annual needs from baskets, to flats to our vegetable plants for our rasied beds this year through them. Excellent service. Check out Diaz Greenhouse. It was a great experience and honestly preferred it to hitting the larger, more crowded garden centers at big box or larger greenhouses.

There a lot of other greenhouses here in Monroe County. We have also used Parrans in Monroe and Ida locations. They have a great mix of perennials, annual, baskets, and veggies. I got all my vegetables from them last year and they were great plants. We also have showed Schwartz greenhouse in the past, which always has good quality and a mix of perennial, annual, roses, veggies etc. I have gotten Lavender also from both Parrans and Schwartz.

I am drinking coffee and then getting ready to start planting these guys. Have a great day!