For home gardeners growing different lavender varieties, the practical impact of cross-pollination primarily revolves around seed production and the genetics of future generations, rather than affecting the plants you currently have.
Here's a breakdown of the practical impacts:
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Your Existing Lavender Plants Are Unchanged:
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No Impact on Current Flowers or Scent: This is the most important practical point. If you have a 'Munstead' English lavender and a 'Grosso' Lavandin growing side-by-side, and bees carry pollen between them, your 'Munstead' plant will still produce 'Munstead' flowers with its characteristic scent and appearance, and your 'Grosso' plant will still produce 'Grosso' flowers with its scent and appearance. Cross-pollination does not alter the genetic makeup of the parent plant that is receiving or donating pollen. The impact is only on the seeds produced.
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No Change in Plant Vigor or Hardiness (for current plants): The health, size, or cold hardiness of your current lavender plants will not change due to cross-pollination.
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Impact on Seed Saving and Propagation:
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Unpredictable Offspring from Seeds: This is the main practical consequence. If you collect seeds from any of your lavender plants in a garden where different varieties are growing (and are flowering simultaneously), those seeds are highly likely to have resulted from cross-pollination.
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"Not True to Type": When you plant these cross-pollinated seeds, the resulting new lavender plants will not be identical to the parent plant from which you collected the seeds. They will be hybrids, and their characteristics (flower color, plant size, bloom time, foliage, and especially scent/essential oil profile) will be variable and unpredictable. You might get something interesting, or something less desirable.
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Why Cuttings are Preferred: Because of this genetic variability from seeds, home gardeners who want to propagate specific lavender varieties (like 'Hidcote', 'Phenomenal', or 'Goodwin Creek Grey') use cuttings. A cutting is a genetic clone of the parent plant, guaranteeing that the new plant will be identical to the one it was taken from. This is the practical, reliable method for maintaining specific cultivars.
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Encouraging Pollinators (Positive Impact):
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Having a diverse array of lavender varieties can actually enhance your garden's appeal to bees, butterflies, and other beneficial pollinators. These pollinators, in turn, contribute to the health of your garden ecosystem.
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For lavender essential oil production, bee visitation and resulting pollination are generally beneficial as they can lead to increased flower and seed yield, and thus potentially a higher essential oil volume from the existing plant.
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In summary for the home gardener:
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Don't worry about your existing lavender plants changing. If you like the lavender varieties you have, they will continue to perform as expected.
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Don't rely on saving seeds from your mixed lavender plantings if you want to reproduce a specific variety. For consistent results, learn to take cuttings.
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Embrace the surprise! If you enjoy experimentation, planting seeds from cross-pollinated lavender can be a fun way to see what unique new plants emerge, even if they're not predictable.
So, for most home gardeners, the "practical impact" is largely negligible unless you specifically intend to save seeds for true-to-type propagation, in which case you'll need to use physical isolation methods.
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