AGASTACHE

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Agastache foeniculum

ANISE HYSSOP / HUMMINGBIRD MINT

Agastache foeniculum is a native edible perennial flower that is extremely long blooming and one of the best for pollinators. It’s tubular flowers are highly attractive to bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. It is a member of the mint family and produces aromatic foliage. Agastache will grow best in full sun and prefers dry to medium soil. It is not suitable to wet areas or flooding.

There are four cultivars of Agastache foeniculum we sell as perennials. All four will come back year after year. They have a spike of blue / lavender flowers in midsummer and fragrant foliage that repel deer. They also are known for reseeding and spreading in your sunny garden.

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Other Agastache We Carry

There are many other Agastache species and hybrids we carry. Even though the literature and the catalogs tout them as zone 5 plants we have not had good luck with them perennializing. If our winters were a typical zone 5 winter, where the ground freezes and stays frozen all winter they would survive but with our freeze thaw cycles all winter long they do not usually survive. Therefore, we treat them as annuals. These Agastache start blooming in early summer and continue to bloom until a killing frost, which is often not until Thanksgiving or later.

• Agastache auriantica ‘Apricot Sprite’ : We grow these from seed and they are a great season extender. It is the perfect orange color for fall.

• Agastache Kudos series : A hybrid Agastache developed at the famous Terra Nova nurseries and is more compact than the species. It comes in many colors: Mandarin, Ambrosia, Coral, Gold and Slivery Blue and Blue Boa. Plant these in the summer for a long fall season of color. They are great season extenders. A bonus, their minty foliage is not eaten by deer.

“Combine them with other season extenders like salvias and chrysanthemums. Plant them with late season asters, perennial sunflowers and rudbeckia.” -Chris Wiley, owner

• Agastache ‘Rosie Posey’ & ‘Peachie Keen’ : Walters Gardens introductions that we still have in stock. These are shorter, more mounded plants that want a sunny location and are drought tolerant once established. Easy to grow.

• Agastache ‘Mango Tango’

• Agastache ‘Guava Lava’ and ‘Queen Nectarine’ : Two new Walters Gardens introductions we have ordered for 2024 (a Proven Winner variety). New for next year!

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DESIGN TIPS

Agastache is a versatile perennial, with many uses in the landscape. Here are a few ideas:

• Plant a compact variety in a rock garden in combination with creeping succulents, thyme, stonecrop, dianthus, ice plant (Delosperma), and blue fescue.

• Adorn a curbside strip with agastache and other long blooming, low water perennials such as lavender, catmint, yarrow, beardtongue (Penstemon) and fountain grass (Pennisetum).

• Place a large decorative ceramic container near a deck or patio and plant with a compact variety of agastache alongside other plants with similar cultural needs such as lantana, gazania, African daisy (Osteospermum), ‘Angelina’ sedum, or New Zealand flax (Phormium).

• Naturalize in a meadow setting with other flowering natives such as black-eyed Susan, gayfeather (Liatris), purple coneflower (Echinacea), salvia, milkweed, and asters to attract hummingbirds, butterflies and insect pollinators.

• Plant an herb garden with anise hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) and some of your culinary favorites such as oregano, marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme, mint, and lavender.

• Mass along a slope, alternating groupings of other long blooming drought-tolerant plants such as lavender, Russian sage (Perovskia), salvia, sea holly (Eryngium) or tickseed (Coreopsis).

• For late season color, plant agastache alongside asters, goldenrod, salvia, Joe pye weed, silvergrass (Miscanthus), stonecrop (Sedum), and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium).

  [Resource: Garden Design}

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