Four thousand years ago, in Cyprus, lavender was blended into a fragrance that, when unearthed in the 2000s, became the world’s earliest surviving perfume. Millennia on, the herb remains at the apogee of aromatics. From medieval pomanders to 19th-century bestselling scents, lavender’s ancient appeal hasn’t abated with present-day perfumers either. Incense Water by Perfumer H, for example, could be a modern interpretation of a historic attar, mixing top notes of lavender with Roman chamomile, frankincense and saffron.
But what of the plant itself? ‘Lavender’s blue... lavender’s green,’ the folk song goes. It can be a great many other colours, too. With silvery foliage, scented by the tiny mauve, white or deep purple flowers that float in a crowd around each bush, they shift in the breeze, playing host to bees that prize its pollen as highly as we do its aroma.
Ready for harvest from mid-July onwards, lavender is a flower of the warmer months. One of the first plants we’re taught as children to rub between hands and inhale, thereafter sealing in our senses something special and reminiscent of summer. Riffing on this is A Balm of Calm from Penhaligon’s, combining it with other garden favourites, such as geranium and iris, for an instant hit of serenity. Alongside is Le Labo’s Lavande 31, a tongue-in-cheek take on lavender’s more old-school associations, updating the nostalgia with earthy oak moss and amber.
Jersey by Chanel, part of the house’s Les Exclusifs collection, blends the softness of lavender with Bourbon vanilla and notes of white musk, making for something as layered as the lavender plant’s own multifarious scent profile, or what David James, head gardener at Derbyshire’s Melbourne Hall, describes as hazy, blurry and enveloping but branching out well beyond those borders’. That would make sense, given the more than 450 different varieties available. Some of the most popular cottage garden types being English (Lavandula angustifolia) ‘Hidcote’ and ‘Munstead,’ along with lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia), which are those standing in rows on endless purple Provençal hills.
Where other herbs might ignite the senses, this small shrub is said to soothe the mind instead. ‘Despite evoking feelings of calm, lavender paradoxically thrives in the harshest of conditions. Intense heat, direct sunshine and sharp soils make up their preferred home,’ James, himself a collector of rare lavenders and custodian to numerous different varieties, concludes. ‘It’s as if, in taking on all that discomfort, they can impart solace to any wearer of their scent.’