South Bohemia, Czech Republic

I really, really do not understand lavender. I have been growing it in pots for years, here in the Czech Republic. I know one is not supposed to cut into the hard wood, I know one is supposed to give it a haircut after it flowers, I do all these things and some of the plants flourish and some throw up their stems and die on me.

Some years I carefully swathe the pots in warm poly stuff, sometimes I leave them unswathed. Doesn't seem to make any difference, some survive the winter, some don't. Even this winter, which dropped to -30 here and stayed at -18 for a couple of weeks, some plants came through (unswathed) and have thrown beautiful new growth, others haven't. But they are all treated the same.

I would welcome some advice a) on how to deal with them better and b) I had hoped to be able to bring a substantial amount of cut lavender back to the UK at the end of July for my son's wedding on 12th August - the colours are sage and lavender and we plan to decorate with lots of lavender.

Sadly what I have is not going to be enough as there is no sun here at the moment, growth is slow and I lost a lot of plants this winter. Can anyone suggest a (hopefully not too expensive) source of cut lavender somewhere not too far from Hoddesdon in Herts?

We will also be looking for masses of gyp.....

All suggestions gratefully received!

• 14 Jun, 2012