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English lavender is the richest in oils. This beautiful evergreen perennial sets bright blooms along the ends of long, slender stems. Indescribably fragrant in foliage and flower, it blooms in late summer, and is taller than it is wide, reaching about 18 inches high and a foot wide. Zones 7-9. Packet is 100 seeds.

French Long (AKA Spanish Lavender) has bright purple flowers on a bushy, densely branched plant 30 inches high and about 20 to 25 inches wide. The bracts are magenta and the blooms intensely colored on 8- to 12-inch stems. Very strongly scented, it is especially suited for drying. Zones 7-9. Packet is 100 seeds.

Hidcote Blue offers the darkest blooms on 14-inch stalks. This is a very compact, upright variety, just 12 to 18 inches high and wide. It is ideal for edging pathways, where its long, fragrant stems can brush passersby, releasing their heavenly scent. Zones 6-9. Packet is 100 seeds.

Munstead is the lavender introduced by Gertrude Jekyll in 1916 and still among the most popular today. It is an English variety, forming a neat, bushy footstool of a plant, covered in ultra-fragrant blooms from midsummer until season's end. Evergreen, it is very robust and tolerant of adversity, ideal for today's thirsty gardens. 12 to 18 inches high; 18 to 24 inches long, with silvery-blue-green foliage that glints in the summer sun. Zones 5-9. Packet is 100 seeds.