Queen Victoria loved lavender and grew it in her garden. She filled the Osborne House, a summer home, with lavender. The Queen was also known to be a regular consumer of lavender tea.
Lavender was widely used in the Black Plague as protection against infection.
Lavender is often referred to in the Bible, where it is known as “spikenard.”
The word lavender comes from the Latin root lavare, meaning to wash. The Roman baths were famous for using lavender oil for the bath water as well as massage.
Lavender in literature:
Here’s flowers for you; Hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram; The marigold, that goes to bed wi’ the sun And with him rises weeping: these are flowers Of middle summer, and I think they are given To men of middle age.
