A little bit of lavender

[gardenpaws_VA]

Maya, Puttgirl is exactly right about drainage being more important than the precise temps. Please don't keep your lavender in the garage - it won't be at all happy there, even for the winter.

You should have no problem with growing lavender in-ground in most of CT as long as you stay away from the L. dentata/viridis and L. stoechas pedunculata (the "butterfly lavender" someone described above) groups. Those two won't be reliably hardy, but you should do well with the (smaller) English lavenders (L. angustifolius) and also the (larger) Provence-type lavenders (L. x intermedia etc).

Just make sure that 1) you have well-drained soil, and no mulch which can get soggy (use a stone mulch if needed, not an organic), and 2) you also have your plants out in the open, away from plants which might flop over them and cause the lavender to rot and die.

For all - lots of lavender info here, from one of the experts in the field: http://www.debaggioherbs.com/lavender.php