Behold the “almost perfect”
Nepeta, a member of the Lamiaceae family!
A bushy perennial, its common
name is Catmint. It is well suited to
our mountain environment for a variety of reasons. It’s not only ornamental; it has a pleasant
fragrance and is easy to grow.
It blooms delicate long lasting
blue flowers in late spring and then again in late summer so it’s almost
continuously in bloom. It has very
pretty bluish gray leaves that remind me a bit of lavender, which I find much
more challenging to grow.
Once established, it is quite
drought tolerant when planted in full sun or partial shade. It’s not particularly picky about the soil as
long as it has good drainage.
The wild life we like to encourage
in our gardens like bees, butterflies and hummingbirds are all attracted to the
plant. Even better -- deer and elk have
no interest. Catmint and yarrow are
literally the only plants that elk have never touched in my yard.
So, what’s the downside of the
“almost perfect” Catmint? As it gets
bigger, it has a tendency to lie down.
You can be quite ruthless in cutting it back and it will rebound surprisingly
quickly and bloom again. It can also
become invasive in small areas.
As mountain gardeners, we are
always experimenting. We find exotic
plants we love, that we wish would love us back and it often results in utter disappointment. Here’s the plant that you can pretty much
ignore and it will thrive in your neglect!
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