Lounging Lavender, or simply L.L. as she is known in the “hood,” which isn’t really the “hood” at all, but more like a dilapidated garden for displaced and aging shrubs, begins her day with a daily routine of sun beams and purified water. To say she lives a life a luxury would be the understatement of the century as she is most comfortable in a sauna or “lounging” in a deck chair in Palm Beach. In the winter, she charters a private jet to sunnier climes where she can be found fraternizing with a purple salvia, a Russian sage, and a riotous Hyssop who goes by the name Bettina LaBush. Together these precocious sun zealots fill the air with pleasing scents and bright colors, all the while effortlessly swaying in the mid-morning breeze.

Despite the apparent leisure and nonchalance of her seemingly luxurious lifestyle, Lounging Lavender has had significant challenges in her relatively short existence. For example, her soil bed is often too dry for her liking as she fights against the misconception that lavender prefers the arid, harsh landscapes of the desert when in fact she would love nothing more than a week’s stay at the Hotel Le Walt in Paris where the bath water is simply divine! But more often than not, Lounging Lavender can be found adorning various small but elegant vases in the luxurious rooms of five-star hotels in and around Europe, thus fostering the misconception that all she’s good for is lounging about in narrow-necked bottles filled with barely an inch of water.

Many songs have been written in her honor and she is always quick to remind the other blooms in the garden that she is constantly being celebrated in the mainstream media. Her personal favorite is Gordon Lightfoot’s “Approaching Lavender,” a love song about a girl so exotic she turns men’s tongues to fire. Needless to say, this is certainly a good skill to have in an otherwise limited arsenal of floral achievements.

 

  • Andy Warhol, Suicide (Purple Jumping Man), 1963

  • John Currin, Altar, 2015

  • Frans Verhas, The New Bracelet, 1850-1894

  • Lauren Quin, Clutch for an Open Palm, 2020

  • Georgia OKeeffe, Gray Line with Blue, Black and Yellow, 1923

  • Jan Gatewood, Captain Miserable, 2020

  • Maro Gorky, Cypress, 2000

  • Kehinde Wiley, A Portrait of a Young Gentleman, 2021

  • Claude Monet, Water Lilies, 1919