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Garden Sanity by Pet Scribbles

Lavender Phenomenal: best lavender for heat and humidity!

This post and photos may contain Amazon or other affiliate links. If you purchase something through any link, I may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Any supplies used may be given to me free of charge, however, all projects and opinions are my own.


August 15, 2022 By Laura Leave a Comment

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Lavender Phenomenal is one of the hardiest evergreen lavenders around. It handles heat, humidity and rough Winter weather with ease! Learn why you will love this lavender!

best lavender for heat and humidity

A few years ago, I wrote an article here about how to harvest lavender the easy way.

harvesting lavender the easy way

A reader asked what type of lavender I had in my garden, and I realized I needed to do an article on here about my favorite lavender that we grow.

It’s called Lavender Phenomenal — sometimes Phenomenal Lavender — and I think its name is perfect! 

Phenomenal, in fact!

Lavender Phenomenal Highlights

Lavender Phenomenal — or you can also call it Phenomenal Lavender — is one of the hardiest lavenders around! Many gardening experts say it may be the toughest lavender there is!

In fact, Lavender Phenomenal is an evergreen perennial shrub, so you’ll have color year-round!

This lavender can easily handle heat and humidity, which makes it perfect for any part of the country where humid Summers can be tricky for other varieties of lavender. 

Lavender Phenomenal has great disease resistance.

Rough Winter weather is also not a problem for this Lavender. It maintains its color in Winter when most other lavenders would suffer and die back. 

I’m in zone 7b here in southern New Jersey, and Lavender Phenomenal stays evergreen for us. It has a pretty gray-blue color in Winter, shifting to more of a gray-blue-green in Summer.

I’ve seen it called “ever-gray” instead of evergreen. I like that!

The secondary appeal — at least for me — is that Lavender Phenomenal was discovered, developed and bred by Lloyd Travan at his Peace Tree Farm in Pennsylvania. I love that a tough lavender was cultivated right here in the United States!

Lavender Phenomenal perennial flowers

How to care for your Lavender Phenomenal

USDA Hardiness Zones: 5 through 9 or 10. 

Helpful tip: I find that zone numbers for Lavender Phenomenal vary on different garden websites. Your local nursery experts will know best what will grow in your specific region.

Soil: This lavender is such a hardy and reliable perennial and doesn’t need any type of fancy care for it to thrive, other than it doesn’t like heavy wet soils like clay. 

We have clay soil — but we amended our soil a few years back with compost and manure and the lavender is happy and thriving!

Make sure your soil has good drainage.

Water: doesn’t require much. Just make sure to give it adequate water when first planted. 

I find that perennials in general need more water during their first planting season than they will require in subsequent seasons as their roots expand and the plant matures.

Sun: full sun is best.

Fertilizer: Lavender (in general) does not require fertilizer, as it grows best in lean soil. However, adding some slow-release organic fertilizer around the perimeter of the plant will benefit the soil (and plant) over time without any harm to the actual plant. (I use Espoma Plant-tone.)

Size: grows up to 2 feet to 3 feet tall and wide, with 5-inch long flower spikes. 

Resistant to: deer, rabbits, squirrels

Attracts: bees and butterflies

lavender blooming in foreground and background of photo

Trial and Error

In the past, I grew a few other varieties of Lavender in our backyard and had some success with them. 

I tried the Munstead and Hidcote varieties, and grew Spanish Lavender as well. These lavenders didn’t always survive the Winters here, and what DID survive definitely looked ragged by the Springtime.

Try, try again — Fall 2014

We planted our Lavender Phenomenal back in September 2014, when we had our front yard grass removed and lots of garden beds and pavers installed instead.

It was a major renovation and makeover, with a few minor blips along the way. (Read my top tips on planning a landscape makeover.)

How to plan your dream front yard! (And how we went grass free!)

I was impressed with these little plants over the Winter months, as they seemed to keep their color, but I still wondered if they would survive.

How Lavender Phenomenal looks in Spring

The Lavender did survive, and looked good the following Spring (2015):

young Lavender Phenomenal plants

Beautiful Summer Color!

By July of 2015, these small plants had grown gorgeous lavender stems. Our first flowers on these young plants!

Lavender Phenomenal in the garden

This Lavender bloomed reliably all Summer long and into the Fall. 

Lavender Phenomenal flowers

Oh these special lavender flowers

Phenomenal Lavender is a reliable bloomer with a long blooming period. 

The Lavender scent is wonderful: strong but not overwhelming. Lavender Phenomenal has a high content of essential oils, which contributes to its amazing scent.

The color is stunning! You get that color year after year, with no fading from the sun like I’ve experienced with some other Lavender varieties.

Lavender Phenomenal flowers: fresh cut or dried

You can cut the stems for pretty cut flowers that will last a long time in a vase, or leave the flowers to dry on the stems for an even longer color show.

As the Lavender flowers dry on the stems, they continue to look lovely in the garden!

Dried lavender is easy to harvest — see my easy how-to post here — and can be used for crafts and potpourri. 

Pruning

In the beginning, I was good about pruning my Lavender in the Fall by removing the dried stems plus shaping up the shrubs a bit. After pruning, the color is still so pretty and everything is neat and tidy, ready for the Winter.

pruning lavender phenomenal

However, over the years I didn’t prune them as far back into the plants as I should have. This was a mistake — and you can learn from my mistake so this doesn’t happen to you.

I have an in-depth article on When, Why and How to Prune Lavender. You’ll find easy tips and clear explanations that work for any type of Lavender you’re growing in your garden.

Image of lavender with text How to Prune Lavender

Lavender Phenomenal in Winter

We had a harsh Winter this year plus quite a few late Winter-early Spring snowstorms that brought heavy, wet snow that crushes plants if not brushed off.

Yet our Phenomenal Lavender was just fine!

smiling woman sitting on the edge of a foundation garden bed filled with shrubs during Winter (no snow in photo)
December, before the heavy snows arrived during the Winter!
phenomenal lavender in Winter
lavender phenomenal in Winter

By the end of the Winter, there’s more of a blue-gray cast to the plant.

Lavender color end of Winter

Lavender Phenomenal in Spring

I love how the color of Lavender Phenomenal accents early blooming evergreen perennials each Spring, like the white Candytuft flowers and the magenta Kramer’s Red Winter Heath below.

2017: two years after planting

Lavender Phenomenal in Early Spring

2020: five years after planting

foundation garden bed with shrubs and small white flowers in front of home

Here’s how the Lavender looks in the background (below, top of photo) in Spring with Daffodils and blooming Winter Heath (2022):

Daffodils and flowering heath in early Spring

The new growth begins in early May:

Lavender Phenomenal new growth

I love the color contrast between the green leaves of the ornamental Japanese maple and the Phenomenal Lavender:

shades of green in the garden

By the end of May, stems are visible!

Lavender Phenomenal new Spring growth

The hint of blooms is also visible:

Lavender Phenomenal - the best lavender for heat and humidity!

Lavender Phenomenal in Summer

When the plants are in full bloom, it’s like having your very own Lavender field in your garden.

lavender field in your own garden
lavender flowers swaying in the breeze

Here is how our Lavender looks seven years later in 2022!

Lavender blooming in a garden bed in Summer
lavender growing by front entrance to home

Lavender Phenomenal in Fall

In the Fall season, Lavender Phenomenal provides a background color to the brighter Autumn hues of pumpkins and Fall foliage, plus the Knockout Roses still going strong.

The Lavender behind me (below) has grown rather large as I wasn’t pruning it back enough. (See my pruning article to learn what I should have been doing instead!)

woman smiling in front of a home's foundation garden bed in Fall
Me in front of the left foundation bed, Fall 2020.

In this photo below, you can really see just how much the Lavender has grown with minimal pruning, as well as how much it has spread over the years.

late Fall garden bed filled with shrubs and orange-leaved small tree with pumpkins in background
Right foundation bed, Fall 2020.

Enjoy this video I made of Lavender Phenomenal in full bloom!

Gorgeous, right?

So there you have it:

The best lavender for heat and humidity is Lavender Phenomenal!

Happy gardening!

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Filed Under: Perennials, Plants Tagged With: DIY, dried flowers, dried lavender, evergreen, flowering shrubs, front yard makeover, garden, garden beds, gardening, grass free front yard, harvesting lavender, landscaping, lavender, lavender flowers, Lavender Phenomenal, outdoors, Perennials, purple flowers, Summer flowers

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Welcome to Garden Sanity by Pet Scribbles. I’m Laura, an artist and self-taught gardener. Gardening is therapeutic for me, peaceful and calming. I write articles and film videos centered around my own gardens, with plenty of plant suggestions and gardening tips. I’m glad you’re here and happy to share my garden inspiration with you!

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