Waltz cites Sandra Stahl Dolby as describing this broadside version as being about a girl named Nell keeping the singer's bed warm.

[5] Both Waltz (citing Eloise Hubbard Linscott) and Halliwell have noted the song's association with Twelfth Night and the choosing of the king and queen of the festivities of that holiday.

[2][1] "Lavender's Blue" emerged as a children's song in Songs for the Nursery in 1805 in the form: Lavender blue and Rosemary green, When I am king you shall be queen; Call up my maids at four o'clock, Some to the wheel and some to the rock; Some to make hay and some to shear corn, And you and I will keep the bed warm.

Vera Lynn's version of "Lavender Blue" was issued on the B side of her single "Again",[12] which reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart on January 21, 1949.

[13] In 1959, Sammy Turner released a rhythm and blues version produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller which reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

[14][15] Benjamin Britten wrote Lavender's Blue into his 1954 opera The Turn of The Screw, where it is sung by the two children, Miles and Flora.

[16] In 1985, the British rock band Marillion included a song called "Lavender" on their album Misplaced Childhood.