Growing Lavender in Manila, Philippines
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Chelo
Posted on: March 8, 2000

I live in Manila, Philippines where the lowest temperature can be 20 degrees Celsius. Does this make our area belong to zone 11? I’m most interested in your lavender plants and I wish to know which ones can grow in our region. Actually, we have in our garden some foreign plants which grow very well like gardenia, azalea, honeysuckle, gladiola, jasmine and pansy to name some. As far as I know, these are lower zone plants. So is it possible to grow lavender in Manila? We really like it in particular!

Your climate is warmer than zone 11 – it is tropical.

I don’t think that English lavender in its many varieties will do well in the tropics, but some of the other varieties of lavender that are rated for zone 8 to 9 might make it in your area – at least for a time. You may have to treat them as annuals. Another variety you may wish to try as an annual is Lady lavender. Since it blooms the first year, it should do well for a time. Let us know what the results are if you decide to try some of the lavenders.

I noticed that there are some plants in your catalogue which have no zones indicated. Does that mean they can grow in any zone?

Most of our annuals have no zone attached to them, because a zone would only come into play if you wanted to naturalize the plant and were depending on the seeds to survive the winter. Most annuals will do well in the tropics. We have had reports back from some of our kind customers telling us how our plants fared in tropical climates. We have posted these results on our web-page (www.richters.com) To find it click on "Q&A", then on "Search Q&A", then type in "tropic" and read the questions and answers that the search brings on the screen.

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