Lavender Aromatherapy

Lavandula x intermedia 'Riverina Thomas' (Riverina Thomas Lavandin) A robust selection of Lavandin that grows as a mound to about 2 to 3 feet tall by as wide with fragrant narrow leaves that when in active growth are green but age to gray-green. In late spring into early spring arise the very long 2 to 3 foot peduncles topped by a compact 3 to 4 inch long spike of sweet smelling violet-blue flowers that peak in early to mid summer with a repeat flowering in the fall. Besides this repeat flowering aspect, 'Riverina Thomas' is also known to have to have larger more fragrant flowers that yield up to five times that aromatic oil of other lavandin varieties. Plant in an open sunny location in a well drained soil where it is quite drought tolerant and needs only be irrigated occasionally to infrequently once established – over watered plants are floppy and weaker and dislikes overly wet conditions. The lavandins are cold hardy to below 15 degrees F and can be long lived if pruned hard after flowering in late summer – cut back deep into the leafy stems above the hard wood but do not prune in late fall or winter. The lavandin varieties of lavender are the most commonly used lavenders to extract lavender oil but, besides their commercial use, they are great in the garden and useful for fresh sachets, dried for potpourri and the edible flowers for salads or cooking. As with most lavender they are quite attractive to bees and butterflies, but not particularly to browsing animals – deer tend to leave alone but rabbits sometimes nibble at the leaves. Lavandula x intermedia 'Riverina Thomas' is a triploid hybrid that was created by crossing the popular dark flowering Lavandula x intermedia 'Grosso' with English Lavender, Lavandula angustifolia. It comes from the breeding program of Dr. Nigel Urwin of Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia. In 2003 through a selection program in Riverina, the agricultural region of south-western New South Wales where Charles Sturt University is sited, the world’s first commercially available polyploid lavenders were released with names such as 'Riverina Alan' 'Riverina Margaret', 'Riverina Eunice' 'Riverina James' and 'Riverina Thomas'. Dr. Urwin published a report about his work in 2009 in the Improvement of Lavender Varieties by Manipulation of Chromosome Number published by Australian Governments Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, noting that "these plants should be higher yielding and produce equivalent or better quality oils than currently grown varieties.". In this report he lists the parentage of 'Riverina Thomas' (originally having the code name L. x intermedia 'CSU150') as having Lavandula x intermedia 'Grosso' as the seed parent and Lavandula angustifolia as the pollen parent.