I love agastache but so far I’ve tried a ton of seeds and bought quite a few plants from local nurseries. Perhaps I didn’t water them enough to keep them established, but so far only one has come back, hopefully over the hump to stay coming back. Anyone had good long term success with these plants getting established? They seem to be short lived perennials by their definition, I want to fill in all my mulched area “understory” with small pollinator happy flowers and these are some of my favorites. The only thing that reliably succeeds for me is Mexican sage and echinacea which I love also, any varieties of agastache or hyssop would be appreciated
Anise hyssop (A. foeniculum) self-sows prolifically here, and comes back year after year - in the garden & a couple of flowerbeds where I scattered some seed years ago.
1 Like
Yeah I think it’s an irrigation issue for me, gonna have to add a dripper for them in the future.
My soil is so sandy it just dries out so quickly, hard to establish things that need a lot of moisture
Similar soil type, I have to plant all my flowering perennials like that underneath old trees that produce alot of leaf litter, since the ground around them has actual organic matter in it. Otherwise they have to be watered heavily once or twice a day, and even then they can succumb to the heat.
And we’ve barely ever had them self sow, they just don’t sprout up again.
1 Like
Anise hyssop is quite drought tolerant for me. My most drought tolerant plants so far are probably sweet goldenrod and wild bergamot. Except for the cactus, of course.
2 Likes
Yeah sounds identical to my situation. Makes it tough to establish a understory flower level, but I haven’t given up yet
1 Like
I’m in a different zone from you, but I’ve found catmint (nepeta) to be very easy to grow, long-blooming, and attractive to beneficials. Might be one reasonable alternative for you. (We have a sandy loam soil that is fairly quick to drain.)
1 Like
I have some, but I want to get rid of it. While it does attract bees, it also attracts neighborhood cats that roll on it all spring haha
2 Likes
Interesting - hasn’t been a problem for us, for whatever reason. Can definitely see how that would be annoying (but might not be wholly negative if you happened to have problems with voles, for instance).
2 Likes
cats eat squirrels/ voles/ mice. let them roll.
1 Like