Lavender is a fragrant bush that has relaxing, calming, refreshing, balancing, cooling, anxiety, soothing aromatic benefits.

Lavender has been revered for its fragrance and healing properties throughout the ages. The name lavender is derived from the Latin word lavare, to wash, and is one of those ancient herbs first used for cleaning clothes and for bathing, due to its refreshing scent.

Lavender grows wild in many forms throughout the world and is indigenous to the Mediterranean, where it thrives in warm, sunny, semi-arid conditions.

Dioscorides, the Greek writer, listed lavender as a medicinal plant in one of its earliest recordings. His writings recommend boiling the flower heads of lavender in water to make brew that was "good for ye griefs in ye thorax". In the 1600's lavender was believed to cure hysteria. Lavender oil is still used to ease aching joints and relieve stress. Its use as a medicinal plant is, in fact, ancient, treating a number of nervous related conditions, such as insomnia, migraine headaches, irritability, and depression. It is also said to have powerful antibiotic properties. During the height of the Plague during the Middle Ages, the French town of Grasse remained surprisingly free of the disease. Some suspect this is because of the huge volume of lavender used by the town to make perfumes and scent leather.

In addition to being a wonderfully fragrant herb with beautiful flowers in hues from blue to purple, lavender has marvelous antiseptic, deodorant and insect-repelling properties.

Lavender clippings can be used a mulch, repelling insects in the garden and keeping mildew at bay, especially under roses.

Most people associate lavender with soaps, perfumes and for its use in aroma therapy to soothe and calm. As far back as early Romans and Greeks people would bathe in waters scented with lavender.  While English Lavender (Lavendula officinalis or angustifolia) is primarily used for perfumes and soaps, it is most often French Lavender (Lavandula dentata) that is used for cooking. I have used flowers from many different plants, unsure of their variety and have found one rule of thumb: the darker the color of the blossom-- the more intense the flavor. Given this range of intensities I tend to cook with lavender as I do with most herbs: go lightly at first to test the intensity and depth of flavor, then add more as needed.

Lavander produces one of the most sought after essential oils:  it has antibacterial, antibiotic, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antiseptic, antiviral, antispasmodic, detoxifying, disinfectant, decongestant, nervine, nervine, normalizes blood pressure, sedative properties. 

Lavander Oil is indicated for acne, abscesses, abrasions, animal bites, boils, blisters, bleeding, boils, bruises, burns, colds, cuts, coughs, dermatitis, diarrhea, ear infections, colic, nausea, eczema, blepharitis, conjunctivitis, cystitis, insomnia, laryngitis, leucorrhea, gingivitis, hay fever, headache, itching, palpitations, scars, sinusitis, sties, sunburns, tendonitis, urticaria, vomiting, windburns, wounds, ulcers.