About Lavender:

Prized for centuries for its healing, antiseptic and calming abilities, lavender remains the most versatile of all herbs.  The Romans, who first introduced lavender to England, were so impressed with its healing properties that they carried it along with them on their campaigns to dress war wounds.  Queen Elizabeth I, during England’s 16^th Century, so adored lavender that not only did she drink copious cups of it as a tea but also paid dearly to a distillery for its compound as a perfume.  But it was Victoria’s long reign which created the wonderfully romantic lavender association with Victorian England.  Queen Victoria’s homes were impregnated with the aroma of lavender and she appointed a “Purveyor of Lavender Essence to the Queen!”

Today it is the sun-baked slopes of Provence in Southern France which reign as the world’s largest producer of lavender.  Lavender seemed to find its home on the hot, sandy slopes of the Southern Alps in the region, and the Provence section, which is at the center of the perfume industry, has staked its claim as the world’s largest producer of all things lavender - distilling tons of lavender yearly for the wonderful essential oil of lavender.