Lavender has long since revered as having healing properties, particularly for relaxation, and we can all use a little of that.  I'll just concentrate on the gardening aspects.  So here's the technical stuff for the botany nerds, like myself: Lavandula augustifolia, otherwise known as English lavender, has long been grown because of it's cold hardiness.  The problem is that when the scorching sun and 100 degree days roll around, it tends to wither and die. Portuguese lavender (L. latifolia) is popular for it's incredible heat tolerance.  Crossing the English and Portuguese, "Grosso" was created (Lavender intermedia), and now we have the best of the two cultivars....still incredibly fragrant  (so much so that it is off-putting to deer, rabbits and other pests but attractive to bees and butterflies), heavily flowering, and can take our often debilitating NC summers and survive through our relatively mild winters. This versatile little plant can be grown as a low hedge and needs full to part sun.  It has lovely silver-green foliage in the summer and picks up tones of pink, violet and blue in the winter.

photo courtesy: chewvalleytrees.co.uk