Lavender Varieties for Zone 5
Answered by: Inge Poot and Conrad Richter
Question from: Andrena Gray
Posted on: November 24, 1998

I am interested in growing lavender on a small scale commercially. I live in Osoyoos, BC, Canada, which is in zone 5. Do you have any information on the cold hardiness of the varieties you offer, in particular the angustifolia varieties and perhaps the Provence variety.

All of the Lavandula angustifolia varieties are hardy in zone 5 with the Hidcote and Munstead being the most cold hardy. Lady lavender may not be hardy until zone 6, but can be treated as an annual since it flowers the first year.

Of the other varieties that we offer Grosso and Provence lavender are also rated as hardy in zone 5.

You might wish to consult the question and answer section of our web-site for more information on lavender hardiness.

Also, do you have any information on other commercial growers that you could share with me? If you cannot give out this information, could you give my name and address, etc. to them to contact me?

As a matter of policy we do not give out contact information of our customers. We have found that most of our commercial customers prefer not to recieve inquiries from new growers because these inquiries generally take up time and may result in compromising trade secrets of techniques and procedures developed at considerable expense.

In any case there are few commercial growers on this side of the Atlantic. The market is dominated by the French and it is difficult for new growers to compete in the dried flower and oil markets. There are, however, market opportunities, albeit on much smaller scales, for specialty lavender markets which you can read more about them by searching the "Q&A" area of our website for "lavender". These specialty markets, we feel, are underexploited in North America. Check Richard Alan Miller’s responses to similar questions which can find in the same online search.

As part of your ongoing research, here are some suggestions for further reading. Please note that the definitive resource for commercial lavender production and marketing has not yet been written. There are useful snippets of information in "Lavender" by Tessa Eveleigh and "The Potential of Herbs as a Cash Crop" by Richard Allan Miller (both available from Richters). Judith A. McLeod’s book, "Lavender, Sweet Lavender" (check your library), has useful information for commercial growers but it was written for the Australian environment and you will need to take that into account.

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