Lavenders are consistent favourites with gardeners, and no wonder, for they provide masses of beautiful flowers over a long period in summer and they are easy to grow, providing there’s plenty of sunshine and good drainage. ‘Avonview’ is an especially appealing lavender because its flowers are long stemmed, making it good for picking, and it is easily shaped with a little pruning, which makes it a good choice for a hedge. One of the great things about a lavender hedge, in addition to the appeal of the flowers and foliage, is the wonderful aroma which is released as the shears sever the stems. It transforms hedge cutting from a chore to a sensual delight!

There are lots of things to do with lavenders. You might like to go for the nostalgic look, planting lavenders with old fashioned roses, sweet smelling mignonette, romantic red poppies, steely-blue coloured honeywort and marguerite daisy bushes. Modern marguerites such as ‘Sugar Cheer’ are a good idea - they look old fashioned but a bit of modern breeding has made them compact and prolific flowering.

It’s also fun to mingle lavenders such as ‘Avonview’ with a collection of herbs, including thymes, parsley, sage, marjoram and origanum, and rosemary varieties, from the ground hugging Rosmarinus prostratus to bushy varieties such as ‘Tuscan Blue’. In beach gardens, Lavender ‘Avonview’ makes a pretty picture with bold foliage succulents, such as the new, broad leafed, Echeveria ‘Blue Curl’ and the old favourite Senecio serpens which has slender leaves of a most appealing medium blue shade.