Lavandula intermedia Exceptional - Lavandin

Lavandula × intermedia Exceptional is a white lavandin from the famous Phenomenal® line, which combines prolonged flowering, powerful fragrance, cold resistance and silver evergreen foliage. This Mediterranean undershrub holds up well in the rain and flowers despite the relentless summer heat. Its large pure white spikes stand tall in beds and borders and on sunny terraces. It is also an excellent cut flower, fresh or dried, for making bouquets and scented sachets.

Belonging to the Lamiaceae family, lavendin is the common name for Lavandula × intermedia. This hybrid variety results from the spontaneous cross-breeding between true lavender (L. angustifolia) and spike lavender (L. latifolia). In the wild, it is found mainly on sunny limestone hillsides in south-eastern France and north-eastern Spain. It is extensively cultivated in Provence and throughout the Mediterranean basin for its essential oil. It is a woody perennial, a low-growing small shrub whose twigs become woody with age.
The cultivar Lavandula × intermedia 'Hillav' EXCEPTIONAL® is also distributed under the names Exceptional™, Lavandin Exceptional, Hybrid Lavender Exceptional or, in France, 'Exceptional Blanche'®. It was created in 2023 by Hillier Nurseries in collaboration with Lloyd Traven (Peace Tree Farm), then introduced to Europe by Globe Planter and Plantipp. A natural seedling of the famous 'Phenomenal' lavender, it possesses its exceptional tolerance to cold, heat, humidity and root diseases, but with pure white spikes.
This variety was selected as a finalist for the "Chelsea Plant of the Year 2023" award at the Chelsea Flower Show.

'Exceptional' forms a very dense, bushy, regular dome of vegetation. At maturity, the plant reaches 70 to 80 cm in height and 60 to 80 cm in width, slightly less in a pot. Its growth is quite rapid: in two or three years, you get a well-formed cushion, anchored by a powerful root system. The evergreen foliage remains decorative all year round. The narrow and elongated leaves are a bright silvery grey, slightly downy, very aromatic when crushed. Flowering occurs from June to September, in the form of thin, rigid stems bearing long, dense spikes, 15 to 20 cm long, covered with small creamy-white tubular flowers. They are very fragrant, with the typical camphoraceous note of lavandin; they are abundantly visited by bees and butterflies.

In the garden, 'Exceptional' lavender is best planted in groups of three or five specimens, at the edge of a dry bed, on a slope or along a path. It can be tastefully combined with Gaura lindheimeri 'Snowbird', oreganos and thymes. Slip a few Eryngium zabelii 'Big Blue®' sea hollies between the clumps and enhance the whole with shrubby sage 'Royal Bumble'. In a large pot, a single clump of Exceptional is enough to perfume a terrace in full sun.