How to plant my lavender hedge - planning/aesthetics advice please?

[FishfingersAreOK]

I have a whole load of lavender ordered to go in my front garden. The flower bed is about 50-60 feet long, along the edge of the driveway (lawn on the otherside).

I have planned a lavender hedge, with bark mulching to try and keep things fairly low maintenance. so I can tackle the back . Am going to put in a couple of ceanothus (?sp?) and some sea holly too. Plus alium and anemone blubs. and a dark pink fushia I could not bring myself to dig up as was losing the will to live

So far so clear in my mind. But now am having a lack of experience/knowledge/taste wobble - in essence I have the bigger plan but not how to execute it to look good.

I have 40 hidcots, 6 lilac and 6 pink lavender arriving. Plan was from end to end to go

Ceanothus
3 x lilac lavendar
10 hicots
3 x pink lavender
10 hidcots
Sea Holly
10 hidcots
3 x pink
10 x hidcot
3 x lilac
Ceanothus (would cover the dodgy border edge at either end. Will prune hard and low each year)

This plan suits my ordered mind. But does gardening work like this? Would this work?? Or should I just mess the coloured lavender all up higgeldy piggeldy?

And suggestions gratefully received please.

(Only thing ordered so far is the lavender - and I have 300feet of garden in the back to do so am sure I can use them there if I have totally fucked up and this whole thing will look awful)

[Pannacotta]

I would go with random, good gardens are often not the most orderly!

[Liara]

I was going to say the opposite!

IME lavender types don't mix well. They don't grow nice and orderly in the same size and shape flowering at the same time but with different colours - which means they never look really good when they are mixed up in a hedge.

I would make the hedge with the hidcotes in the middle, and have the other colours grouped up on either end myself.

[Pannacotta]

Actually you are quite right Liara they don't mix well.
I am not sure I would mix lavender up at all in fact and would block plant it and have the other things at the ends of the borders.
Or could th elavender be used simply as edging OP and you could plant the other things within the beds?

[FishfingersAreOK]

They hidcotes have arrived and with help of DS1 (5yo) are planted all together as a long block. The flowerbed is very long and thin - and really only room for a hedge tbh. Trying not to have to do too much else with regard to landscaping.

Am going to put the pink/lilac at the ends.

Thank you for your advice - saved me a potentially scraggy looking hedge

[bsc]

May I ask where you ordered them from, and what price? I am looking at using lavender to edge my rose beds, as from what I've seen lavender go well with pink roses.

I love ceanothus too, especially when they're really dark blue.

[FishfingersAreOK]

Got them from ebay...actually were advertised by a Yorkshire company called Lavender World. Service was great. They were really well packed and although small Jas stated on the listing) they were not noticably misshapen. Was £12 for 10 hidcotes with free postage. HTH

[bsc]

Oh- thank you very much!

[EBearhug]

I'm glad I got to the end to find you're block planting. My lavender has gone mad this year in the hot summer and because I cut it back to keep it in good shape last autumn, unlike my next door neighbour and it's filling most of the front garden. The bees love it.

You do need to cut it back in autumn to avoid it getting woody and straggly. (Not this year, though, as it's only just gone in.) It's quite easy to take cuttings from, so you can replace it from itself in future years.

[CuttedUpPear]

Lavender pruning - trim over in the autumn to remove all flower stalks and any errant tall growth. don't cut into the old wood.
In late April -May trim again. This time shape the plant by cutting back last year's growth. Again, don't cut into the old wood but do get as far back as you can with this trim.
This way the plant won't get straggly woody legs as it will constantly be reshooting near the base.

When you do you planting, plant them in a double staggered row (like a zig zag) with 60cm between each plant.

[Erebus]

Am deeply curious as to how a thread about lavender got deleted .

Glad you've gone with a lot of Hidcote. I made the mistake of planting up 6 'B&Q specials' in a narrow garden bed between the conservatory and slab walkway; a mate gave me a Hidcote which I stuck in the end. It was much smaller than the B&Qs. After 2 years, the Hidcote is big and bushy whereas the B&Qs were so rangy, straggly and sparse that thsi summer I've hoofed them out and replaced them with Hidcote, too! Lesson learned.

Incidentally, though with the number you have this won't be practical, I saw a YouTube video recently about a bloke who meticulously tip prunes his lavender hedge in Spring, carefully removing the forming flower heads individually from each stalk to encourage branching and bushiness. His hedge looked great as a result!