Call for Artists and Artisans
The beautiful sunshine today reminds us of the wonderful weather we had for Lavender Festival we had in 2019 (although a tad warmer) and afger a 2 year absence we are sooooo excited to announce that Lavender Festival will be held on June 24th, 25th and 26th. It’s that time, we are calling for artists and artisans to be part of our wonderful festival!
The last year we ran the Festival was amazing with record breaking attendance and 36 vendors but we still have room to grow.
The date is Friday, June 24th from 1- 4 pm Saturday, June 25th & Sunday, June 28th from 10 am -5 pm
All works must be original, All applications (see the link below) together with payment and photos must be received by April 20th by either email, hand delivered or snail mail.
We’d love to see you!
Have you been mesmerized by a field of lavender? It’s one of the most relaxing and sensory experiences. The colours, the aromas and the sounds of softly buzzing bees enhances the whole experience.
Lavender makes a wonderful addition to your home garden for that reason- the heavenly scent. It is a relatively easy plant to grow in Zone 6 and is known for its longevity and hardiness.
With their vivid color, cut lavender flowers make a nice addition to a home’s interior. A gift of lavender flowers symbolizes purity, devotion, serenity, hence our name. And in some schools of thought, it represents love. Not only does the flower have significance, the purple colour is also symbolic. Purple is the color of royalty and speaks of elegance, refinement and luxury.
It is certainly a flower you can grow to appreciate. If you love lavender, there are many varietals to choose from, making it easy to become a collector! Just like us at Serenity Lavender. We have over 40 varieties of lavender on display on site in our gardens and in our field.
In this post we will be focusing on 5 different varietals of Lavendula Angustifolia or English lavender. Read more to learn which lavender is best for your home and garden. For more information about plant care see our Gardener’s Guide to Growing Lavender.
Folgate Lavender
One of the first to to bloom, a coveted favourite. The plant grows 20-24″ and is a compact tidy bush with vivid, bright violet flowers. Soft, sweetly aromatic blooms abound on this dense mid green evergreen with narrow foliage and small neat looking upright spikes. Beautiful as an informal hedge, in rock gardens, and in mass plantings along sunny borders. Folgate is an excellent source of lavender oil and is terrific for culinary use. It is one of the varietals that we use in our culinary lavender.
Folgate Lavender
Royal Velvet Lavender
Royal Velvet is rich in fragrance and showy in bloom. It is covered with long stemmed, 3-4 inch long, velvety, dark purple-blue flower spikes which are much longer than Hidcote and the hallmark of ‘Royal Velvet’. Tall, waving flower spikes last and last, and will bloom a second time after a mid-season harvest in the right conditions. The flowers hold their dark colour extremely well when dried and makes excellent fresh cut bouquets and perfect for dried wreaths.
Royal velvet lavender
- Sun: Full
- Water: low once established
- Soil: sandy
- Hardiness zones: 5-9
- Bee Friendly
- Attracts Butterflies
- Deer and Rabbit Resistant
- Good for cut bouquets
Super Blue Lavender
A new addition to our collection, the fragrant wands of rich lavender-blue flowers deliver a soothing scent in early summer. ‘Super Blue’ produces blooms that are tighter together, delivering more color and fewer airy gaps. A compact and fragrant Lavender plant with short spikes that tops out at 12″, making it a perfect choice for edging walkways and setting into patio containers. The large, full blooms lend themselves to cutting and drying.
- Sun: full
- Water: low once established
- Soil: sandy well draining soil
- Hardiness zones: 5-9
- Bee Friendly
- Attracts Butterflies
- Deer and Rabbit Resistant
- Good in containers, edging pathways and dried buds
Super Blue lavender a new varietal at Serenity Lavender
Melissa Lavender
Lavandula ‘Melissa’ is a lovely lavender that was named by Oregon grower Andy van Hevelingen for his wife Melissa. A prolific bloomer with aromatic foliage that perfumes the garden when brushed against. Soft romantic pale lilac blooms offset the fine silvery green foliage. On mass the flowers appear white from a distance. Very prolific it has a nice upright and compact habit. The flowers are very sweetly fragrant and persist for a long time.
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Lavandula Melissa
Sun: full
- Water: low once established
- Soil: sandy well draining soil
- Hardiness zones: 5-9
- Bee Friendly
- Attracts Butterflies
- Deer and Rabbit Resistant
- Good for culinary and fresh bouquets
Hidcote Lavender
An old favourite, the flowers on this plant are the darkest purple of all lavenders. This erect greyish green bush with a splayed or floppy habit grows up to 12- 20 inches tall and approximately 24-30 inches wide depending on soil conditions. The flower stems are short but very aromatic. It is an excellent choice for edging and borders. In the right conditions this plant will bloom continually until the first frost, albeit with a smaller flush of flowers. To enhance blooming, cutting back the stems of faded flowers will enhance a second and third bloom. Hidcote retains it’s colour and is excellent dried and culinary use
- Sun: full
- Water: low once established
- Soil: sandy well draining soil
- Climate: hot summers and warm winters
- Hardiness zones: 5-9
- Bee Friendly
- Attracts Butterflies
- Deer and Rabbit Resistant
- Good as dried buds and culinary with a citrusy note to its flavour
The darkest of lavenders
If you are interested in purchasing lavender plants, our plant Sale begins May 1st, 2021. All varietals are currently available except Hidcote. Call 519 738-6111 to reserve your plants for curbside pickup.
Serenity Lavender Farm welcomes you to our 8th Annual Lavender Festival! Come join us as we celebrate Lavender bloomand our 10th store anniversary!
Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23
10am – 5pm 
130 County Road 50 East, Colchester, Ontario
FREE ADMISSION
This year’s festival will the the best yet, with over 30 artists and artisans, live music, tai chi demonstaration, yoga class, craft demos, a painting workshop, scavenger hunt, children’s activities, plant sale and lavender garden tours.
Here’s the line up so far and we invite you to come and celebrate our lavender bloom:
Musical Entertainment:
Max Marshall – Saturday, June 22, 11am – 2pm
Aaron and Joel Furlotte – Saturday, June 22, 2pm – 5pm
James Staley – Sunday, June 23, 11am – 2pm
Six Degrees – Sunday, June 23, 2pm – 5pm
Artisans:
Local artists, crafters and artisans make up our Artisan Alley, a place to admire and purchase hand-crafted original works and include:
Pawsitively a Dog Thing A Slice of Nature LRRR Designs
G-Pots Cary’s Cutting Boards Glen Eden Salsa
Bishop Artwork EVB Jewelry Stellas Works
Whispers of Wonder Handmade by Deb That’s Sew Sarah
Creations by Ann Mayz Birdhouses Whispering Willow Designs
Jewels by Jasper Transformed Treasures JWaters Design
Couture Art Terra Green Gardens Ayesha Drouillard
R.W Studios Garage Glass Art Dana Laferriere
Twisted to Life KandA Chalk Adventures Then n Now
Kap’s Collection Unconscious Reality Seaside Jewels
Silver by Wendy Jeff Perz Floyjoy Studio
Painting Workshops:
Local artist Rico Dancel is offering two of his well-loved Paint ‘n Wine workshops. His theme, “Lavender Fields Forever.” No experience or materials are necessary! Enjoy a relaxing afternoon with Rico as he leads you and your friends through a guided painting workshop. You’ll take home your own original creation of a lovely lavender field. Tickets must be purchased in advance. $50 + HST. Call Serenity Lavender Farm at 519-984-2684
Children’s Activities:
Every child is an artist and we have lots of children’s activities planned for Lavender Festival 2019! So bring your children and delight in the enchanting world of lavender where they can express their creativity in the chalk walk and colour station, be entertained by the whimsical story telling and readings of local children’s authors including Jane Buttery and Kara Koostra , explore the lavender labyrinth and experience the dance of the butterflies, go on a curiosity invoking adventure with our children’s scavenger hunt or simply write and tie a wish on the magical wishing tree.
Come join us for this fun filled weekend at Serenity Lavender Farm!
If you love all things lavender, you’ll want to save the date! Lavender Fest returns, June 22nd and 23rd this year. We’ve got lots of scent-sational fun in the works and we can’t wait to meet you! More details to come…stay tuned!
In the New
Year we teamed up with Anderdon Apiaries with the goal of bringing to you our customers some 100% natural lavender honey. Even though the spring was hard on our lavender plants that first crop of honey had the subtle delicate of lavender. The bees gathered the nectar from those little purple lavender flowers and it transformed the flavour of the honey perfectly. We have been wanting to offer lavender honey for a few years now and did not want to infuse the flavour of lavender into the honey. We wanted mother nature’s pure and natural version with the help of our friends, the honey bees. Our patience paid off and despite the damage we sustained to our lavender plants we were able to offer 100% natural unpasturized lavender honey, and boy was it delicious.
Once the lavender bloom was finished the bees moved onto to consuming the nectar from all those pretty wildflowers around the farm. This honey was collected, placed in jars and is still available in our retail shop. It’s a wonderful product too, for all you honey lovers.
As the season progressed our friends at Anderdon apiaries collected the honey comb and we are thrilled to announce that Honey comb is now in store!
Honey in the comb is pure, simple and its you to places liquid honey can’t. It’s totally safe to eat and people have been doing so for thousands of years. It’s fantastic over a bowl of oatmeal, slathered on a baguette with brie, finely chopped and topped on a salad with finely crumbled goat cheese or on your next charcuterie board.
It keeps forever and you can store it at room temperature. Its good for you to. But best of all, it’s made from he nectar of the lavender plants and wildflowers at Serenity Lavender Farm and tastes delicious.
Come for this fun and interactive workshop and learn how to prune, plant, harvest and care for your lavender plant. We’ll give you a hands on demonstration of how to prune, give you companion planting ideas and discuss the culinary uses for lavender too! Workshop fee includes a workbook and a lavender plant to give you joy for years to come!
Cost $25.00 +hst. Tickets available on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/twilight-tour-learn-to-prune-grow-lavender-tickets-50014640135
Serenity Lavender is proud to host our 6th Annual Lavender Festival! This event was inspired by the beautiful aromas flavours and colours of lavender. Mother Nature was not kind to our beautiful lavender plants this winter, with the freeze thaw cycles we suffered significant crop loss and plant damage, but with every hardship comes opportunity. We took this opportunity to redesign our lavender gardens and to teach our
customers how to assess plants for cold damage and how to prune plants.
This year the festival incorporates our recently opened hospitality facility and Bistro 42. We’re offering activities for adults and children alike.
For adults there is a Tai Chi demonstration, Yoga class, Alcohol Ink class, Lavender Wand demonstration, Cooking demonstration, Lavender tours, Artists and Artisan alley, live music all day long, and of course artisanal crafted lavender culinary, bath and body products made with our farm grown lavender
We’re ready to entertain your children with whimsical storytelling and readings from local children’s authors, musical interludes, exploration of the lavender labyrinth, chalk art area, the magical wishing tree and if they’re lucky they may even witness the dance of the butterflies.
Come join us for a “Scentscational Experience”
June 30th and July 1st
10 am – 5 pm
130 County Road 50 East Colchester
Free Admission
Food and beverages available for purchase throughout the day.
Reservations required for Bistro 42.
Spoil Mom with a delicious brunch at Bistro 42! Brunch will be served from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in our beautiful dining room overlooking the North 42 Degrees Estate Winery vineyards and the Serenity Lavender Farm gardens.
Reservations are required. Adults $29.95, children 10 and under pay age +$2.
Price does not include HST or gratuity. Call to book, 519-984-2684 or 519-738-6111.
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT – thank you to everyone for your enthusiastic interest!
