While exploring the Applegate Valley Wine Trail this summer, be sure and take the time to smell the flowers—literally. Visitors will delight in blending a wine tasting trip with an excursion to three incredible lavender farms on the Southern Oregon Lavender Trail.

With our warm, dry summers and mild winters, lavender (Lavandula) grows well in gardens in Southern Oregon; indeed, some local farmers have made lavender their principle crop. So it is that during the months of June and July, residents and visitors experience the aromatic and visual delights to be found along the Southern Oregon Lavender Trail in the picturesque Applegate Valley.

This year, participating lavender growers will host their annual festival featuring all things lavender on June 22-24 and July 13-15. Special events during the festival’s two weekends draw thousands of lavender lovers who pick their own bouquets, make lavender wands and wreaths, and take classes on how to cook with lavender and how to distill and use essential oils.

The festival also features music and a variety of locally made and lavender-inspired food and beverages, soaps, lotions and crafts, not to mention the pastoral surroundings—a haven of small farms dotting the foothills of the pine-studded Siskiyou Mountains.

My suggestion for traveling the SOLT is to begin in Williams at Goodwin Creek Gardens, 970 Cedar Flat Road. From there, travel east on OR-238 to the English Lavender Farm, 8040 Thompson Creek Road in Applegate, and then to Lavender Fields Forever, 375 Hamilton Road, located just a few miles outside of the historic pioneer town of Jacksonville, close to Valley View Winery.

Off the trail, indulge yourself with lunch and shopping in Jacksonville before heading just a few miles north to The Lavender Garden at the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center, 569 Hanley Road.

On a recent trek along the trail, I found that each lavender location offers a unique experience to visitors.

At my first stop, I was greeted at Goodwin Creek Gardens by a bright smile from new owner Jered Grzybowski, who introduced me to his wife, Anna, and their 2½-year-old daughter, Ella. The Grzybowski family moved to Williams from Sacramento in April after buying the house and nursery business from longtime owners Jim and Dottie Becker.

Jered and Anna are looking forward to their first season as part of the SOLT and Festival. The three 20×80-foot greenhouses and display gardens at Goodwin Creek will be filled with 100 different kinds of lavender, including Goodwin Creek’s own lavender introductions, Lavandula ginginsii ‘Goodwin Creek’ and L. angustifolia ‘Chelsea Pink’.

Besides lavender, Goodwin Creek Gardens sells more than 20 varieties of rosemary, as well as several varieties of mint, dianthus, primulas, scented geraniums and many more. I was excited to find two plants at Goodwin Creek that I hadn’t been able to find anywhere else locally—Rosa gallica officinalis, the apothecary rose, and Primula veris, the cowslip primrose.

Whereas Jered and Anna are newcomers to the SOLT, Derek and Sue Owen of the English Lavender Farm, my second stop along the trail, are co-founders. The former Londoners have been in the Applegate Valley since 2012, and now grow 10 varieties of lavender on two acres. During the summer, the farm offers stunning mountain views as a backdrop to rows and rows of fragrant lavender.

The English Lavender Farm specializes in a wide range of lavender products: candles, soaps, heat pads, jams and preserves, wreaths and essential oils, to name just a few. Not only are lavender-inspired items made at the farm, Branson’s Chocolates in Ashland also uses lavender grown at the English Lavender Farm to make its line of lavender-infused gourmet chocolates.

Sue said a big part of the enjoyment she gets from the lavender farm is working with other community businesses and groups. During the festival weekends, the English Lavender Farm will host a dozen local artisans and a full lineup of music performed by local bands.

My next stop was Lavender Fields Forever, where I met one of the new owners, Caryn Gehlmann. She and her partner, Bob Sibbitt, took up the reins last year from previous owners John and Bonnie Rinaldi. Caryn spent years working in the auto industry in Detroit, Michigan before she decided to change her life, and her olfactory experiences, by becoming a licensed aromatherapist and moving to Southern Oregon.

Caryn, Bob and their family and friends are continuing to grow seven, pink, white and purple varieties of culinary and distillation lavenders on a five-acre farm next to the Applegate River. During the tour season, visitors pick lavender from wide grass pathways that separate the rows, and a large lawn beckons families to relax and picnic in the shade of wide-canopied trees.

Over the next few years, Caryn said they hope to expand the number of classes at the farm, create a propagation garden, and work with the Pollinator Project to build a lavender labyrinth. “I’m a big believer that we’re all a lot better off when we’re a part of a whole community,” Caryn said.

My last stop along the SOLT was The Lavender Garden, a 4,000-square-foot plot on the campus of the Southern Oregon Research and Extension center. Planting began in 2003, and today the garden contains about 250 plants of 16 different lavender varieties. The Lavender Garden is cared for by volunteers of the Jackson County Master Gardener Association and is one of 20 demonstration gardens at the Extension.

For more information about the Southern Oregon Lavender Trail and Festival, visit www.southernoregonlavendertrail.com.

©Southern Oregon Wine Scene

Summer 2018 issue