February 25th, 2002
Lavandula heterophylla ‘Goodwin Creek Gray’
Plant Profile: Lavender ‘Goodwin Creek’
Here is an unexpected success. I bought a lavender plant in a 4-inch pot last year and planted it. It produced a small bushy plant but did not flower. Sometime in the fall, it was looking straggly so I cut it back. I decided to try to root the cuttings (although I’ve never had any luck doing this with any other plant I’ve tried) and stuck them in the vegetable garden. In January they began putting out new growth. The other day, I was about to pinch them back (to make them bushier) when I recognized little flower buds. Not only did my cuttings root, they are flowering!
Notes
L. ‘Goodwin Creek Gray’.
Discovered at Goodwin Creek Gardens in Oregon.
Possibly a intersectional hybrid: Lavandula x heterophylla. A hybrid supposedly of L. dentata and L. augustifolia.
Hardy to 10 degrees (F).
Garden History
2002-02-25
First flowers.
2002-03-12
The mother plant looks a bit scraggly, so I trim her back and plant the trimmings hoping that I will have luck rooting them a second time.
2002-05-25
The mother plant is in full bloom and looks great. The cuttings I took in March are blooming. The cuttings I took last fall are blooming and the plants are getting bushy.
by M Sinclair Stevens
July 20th, 2002
We planted about 40 Goodwin Creek Lavender, without knowing enough about them. Needless to say, they are dropping like flies. Unfortunately, we have a lot of clay in our soil. We now know that they love sand and alkaline soils. How do we save those that are still salvageable. Is there any way we can put sand near the roots?
August 1st, 2002
I’m on heavy clay soil, too. I worried about the unusual amount of rain we had this July causing rot, but I had planted this lavender in raised beds. So even with all the rain, I guess they had enough drainage. I didn’t add any sand, just mixed in compost to lighten the soil. Here in Austin, the soil is naturally alkaline. A different type of lavender I bought this spring isn’t looking good at all.
I don’t know what you can do to save your plants at this point. When mine got straggly in the heat of last summer, I cut it way back and it grew bushier than ever. This is when I stuck the cuttings in the good soil of the vegetable garden and they rooted (much to my complete astonishment). If you are going to cut back your existing plants, try rooting them. This might provide some free replacements for plants that don’t make it through the summer.
June 2nd, 2003
Does anyone know what the proper botanical name is for the leaf shape of Goodwin Creek Lavender. It seems to me that it is a fairly out of the ordinary shape. What other plants have the same leaf shape?
What a striking plant GCL is. Our plant stock is showing a lot of chartreuse leaves…overwatering or a nutrient/Ph problem. Kind of a cold wet spring here. They are in the greenhouse.
Loving this lavender, as well as Spanish Lavender (L. stoechas), White Edged Lavender, Fern leaf, and of course Munstead which overwinters with mulch in my Zone 3-4 garden.