Blanco Lavender Articles & News

In 2006, the small community of Blanco, the Blanco Chamber of Commerce and the Blanco Lavender Growers Association invited the public to celebrate this area’s young lavender industry. More than 8,000 guests responded by visiting Blanco and attending the official “Lavender Festival of Texas”. They spent a fun-filled weekend enjoying the Lavender Market on the grounds of the historic old courthouse, attended lavender-related seminars, and visited nine lavender farms to talk personally with these pioneers about growing lavender and living the rural life.

The 2007 lavender bloom season, beginning as early as May and continuing for weeks, and sometimes months after the first signs of blooms appear, promises to be a bigger bloom than last year. To kick it off, the Blanco Chamber of Commerce and the Blanco Lavender Growers Association invite return and first-time guests to join them in Blanco, the LAVENDER CAPITAL OF TEXAS ®, for the Third Annual Blanco Lavender Festival on June 9 and 10, 2007.

The Lavender Market will be even bigger this year, with even more lavender products and fine crafts. Seminars will be information-filled based on feedback from last year’s guests. The lavender farms will share their actual experiences over the past year; “How much water does lavender really need?”, “Do deer eat lavender?” “What type of lavender grows best in the Texas Hill Country?” Guests may be surprised at the answers.

To provide an evening venue for our guests, neighboring Johnson City will join Blanco in this festive weekend by hosting “Johnson City Lavender Evenings with Arts and Music” Friday, June 8, and Saturday, June 9. Events will include Music in the Park, entertainment and dancing, late evening opening of the LBJ Historical Park and Boyhood Home, with art galleries and shops open until 10.

We hope you can feature information about the lavender festival and these pioneers in an article or events calendar beforehand allowing your readers time to plan for this event after an article appears, and/or cover the event itself. We are already receiving inquiries about this year’s event from across the United States.

The enclosed press kit provides information on all aspects of the festival, including the history of lavender in Blanco and short profiles on farms. Up-to-date information and electronic versions of press releases are available at www.blancolavenderfestival.com. Please call if you have any questions or needs.

Smell the aroma? Lavender is just one more reason you have to visit the Texas Hill Country! Johnson City has now joined its neighbor, Blanco, to celebrate the beginning of the lavender bloom season. During Saturday and Sunday at Blanco’s old historical courthouse, the Lavender Market will offer lavender items and fine crafts while speakers deliver lavender-related educational programs. Throughout the weekend, merchants will offer lavender merchandise and restaurants will serve lavender-flavored dishes. On Friday and Saturday evenings, Johnson City, “The Heart of The Arts in the Hill Country” will be your host. Events will include Music in the Park, entertainment and dancing, late evening opening of the LBJ Historical Park, with Johnson City’s fine art galleries and shops open until 10. Throughout the weekends, you will want make your way to the nine Lavender Farms on tour surrounding both communities.

The towns of Blanco and Johnson City are located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Blanco is located on the banks of the Blanco River while Johnson City is located on the banks of the Pedernales River. Close by are year-round nature and recreational destination Texas State Parks, the Blanco State Park near Blanco and Pedernales State Park near Johnson City. Throughout the area, attractions located within a few minutes from either center will enhance your lavender experience.

A leisurely drive through the breathtaking Texas Hill Country has always been a favorite activity for out-of-town guests. Now, our new lavender fields are enhancing this natural beauty. As you visit the nine Lavender Farms on tour, you will meet real lavender pioneers as they enthusiastically describe their excitement and hard-won knowledge about lavender.

These pioneers will share with you their successes, and dispel a few myths about growing lavender. Lavender growers continue to try new lavender varieties and growing methods; all of them attempting to stay true to the land, by using organic growing methods as much as possible. Each lavender farm experience will be as varied as its farmers. Farms will offer items for sale, ranging from their favorite lavender plants, to lavender products, to Hill Country crafts. Many of the farms offer special entertainment; and some provide activities and events for the whole family. Some of the farms will even let you pick your own lavender from plants on the farm.

For more information about farm hours and their lavender-picking season, visit www.blancolavenderfestival.com or contact the individual farms.

The Blanco Lavender Growers Association is the Event Sponsor for the Third Annual Blanco Lavender Festival. Lavender farms participating in the 2007 Blanco Lavender Festival are:

[1] Johnson City Lavender Evenings With Arts and Music presented by Johnson City Community League and Johnson City Chamber of Commerce.

[2] Third Annual Blanco Lavender Festival presented by Blanco Chamber of Commerce and Blanco Lavender Growers Association.

Lavender has been described as mystical, magical, spiritual, therapeutic, seductive and intoxicating. It is all of these and more. No other plant elicits such a wide range of visions or emotions. Native to the Mediterranean, lavender is grown all over the world. In the United States and Canada it was the Shakers who first grew lavender commercially when a strict sect of English Quakers, upon their arrival from England, developed herb farms to sell products to the “outside world”.

Lavender is rich in history and myth with documented use for over 2,500 years including its use in mummification and perfumes by the Egyptians. Through the ages, it has been recognized both as a cosmetic herb as well as one to soothe the nerves. Romans used lavender oils for bathing, cooking, and scenting the air, and they most likely gave it the Latin root name (either lavare - to wash or livendula - livid or bluish) from which we derive the modern name. Today, lavender is considered the premier of all perfumes while also containing disinfectant and antiseptic properties. Most recently, lavender has achieved the status of being the most versatile and popular of all the essential oils used in aromatherapy due to its well-balanced scent that blends well with other notes.

Lavender’s uses are as varied as the hues of the blooms found in its many cultivars while each cultivar is often most suited to a particular use. Provence, a cultivar considered suitable for culinary purpose would be less desirable for use in cut flower arrangements as the buds separate (shatter) from the plant very quickly. Grosso, a cultivar grown for its ability to produce an abundance of oil, would produce a very bitter flavor in cooking. Still other lavender are prized for not being lavender at all. Alba and Edelweiss are wonderful landscape plants where white blooms are preferred. Regardless of the intended use, a field of lavender set against the Texas Hill Country is magical and mystical and spiritual and therapeutic and seductive and intoxicating!

For many years, visitors to the Texas Hill Country have enjoyed the beauty of the rough landscape and winding rivers. Much of this rocky limestone land, however, hasn’t been highly sought after for its agricultural use.

In 1999, Robb Kendrick and his wife, Jeannie Ralston, pioneered the way for a new agricultural industry in the area. Kendrick, a National Geographic photographer, while shooting a story for the magazine in Provence, France, noticed that the hilly terrain and the scorching hot summers there were similar to that found at his land near Blanco in the Texas Hill Country.

In 1999, the Kendricks planted 2,000 plants paving the way for the current Blanco lavender growers, many of who were inspired by seminars conducted by the Kendricks.

The Blanco Lavender Growers Association has remained a united group, building upon the experiences of the Kendricks. These pioneers have endured periods of non-stop rain and periods of non-existent rain, each time more committed to this new agricultural crop. They readily share each new experience with each other and with guests to the Texas Hill Country who share their love of lavender.

In 2005, the Blanco Chamber of Commerce hosted Blanco’s First Annual Lavender Festival, setting the stage for this popular annual event. Seeing the vision created by huge attendance at this event, Charley Pemberton was instrumental in gaining Blanco’s official designation in 2006 as the “Lavender Festival of Texas”. This designation has been significant to the success of the annual Blanco Lavender Festival. Charley and his wife, Ganell, were among the first growers in the area to attend a Kendrick seminar, inspiring them to start their new farm in October 2000. In 2006, Charley obtained the LAVENDER CAPITAL OF TEXAS ® service mark and generously bestowed that as a gift to the town of Blanco in February, 2007.

Currently, there are more than 10 lavender farms in the Blanco area with more being added every year. Nine lavender farms will be open to the public during the Third Annual Blanco Lavender Festival. Each is contributing its little bit of history to the lavender industry in this area.

From the Austin Statesman, By Janet Wilson, Sunday, May 13, 2007:

Enjoyed this year's spectacular display of bluebonnets? Now it's time for fields of lavender. For the next couple of months, Hill Country communities and businesses are hosting lavender-related events, from Fredericksburg's Farm to Table lavender trail to Blanco's Lavender Festival and Johnson City's Lavender Evenings with arts and music.

"Bringing farms and restaurants together for amazing local food experiences is what we're aiming for," says Darlene Marwitz, owner of Villa Texas and the Lavender Market, one of the co-sponsors of Fredericksburg's trail. "Historically, Fredericksburg is a farm-based community with a heritage of supporting its agricultural producers. Linking our lavender farms and restaurants is a perfect example of what growing local and eating local is all about."

In addition to individual farm events, five Fredericksburg-area lavender farms are bringing the flavor of lavender from their farms to your table by partnering with local restaurants, which are featuring lavender-based dishes.

Becker Vineyards kicks off the six-week celebration May 19-20, with other lavender farms or their retail lavender shops offering events and activities through June 30. Events include picking your own lavender, learning how to grow lavender in Texas, picnics, and lavender plant and product sales. For details about times and events, call (830) 997-1068 or visit www.villatexas.comor, www.fredericksburg-texas.com.

The entire town of Blanco and surrounding countryside will be bathed in lavender June 9-10 during the Lavender Market on the grounds of the historic former Blanco County Courthouse. Vendors and artists will offer lavender-related products and nine lavender farms will be open for tours. Neighboring Johnson City is joining in the fun June 8-9 with entertainment and dancing and late evening hours at the LBJ Historical Park, with art galleries and shops open until 10. (830) 833-5101, www.blancolavenderfestival.com .

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