How to Grow and Care for Agastache

Agastache is a plant genus that includes giant hyssops and hummingbird mint.

It has a minty, herby fragrance.

The leaves and flowers are edible and they can be dried to make a delicious herbal tea.

Agastache is deer-resistant and rabbit-resistant, and a veritable magnet for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds.

It’s also a fairly long-blooming perennial, flowering all summer and offering vivid color for weeks on end.

It is a close relative ofcatmint, another pollinator-friendly flowering perennial.

If grown in suitable conditions, hummingbird mint and other agastache varieties can live for many years.

Soil

This desert plant grows best in lean soils with low levels of nutrients.

Adding a bit of sand toloamy soilscan improve their suitability for growing agastache.

Though it enjoys a deep watering, consistently moist conditions are not suitable for agastache.

Watering routines should ideally follow desert conditions: occasional blasts of heavy rain followed by days of hot sun.

Additional pruning depends on whether you are growing agastache as a perennial or annual.

Agastachecan be dividedor propagated from cuttings.

Tip the seed heads upside down into a bowl or paper bag to collect the seeds.

Repot the plant to a larger container with fresh potting soil when its root system has filled the pot.

The plant goes into dormancy in the fall but dont cut the dead brown stems back just yet.

Agastache is not susceptible to serious pest or disease problems.

In poorly drained soil, the plant may get root rot.

Possible fungal diseases includepowdery mildewand leaf spot.

The plant is valued as a long-lasting bloomer.

Unlike other perennial flowers, it often blooms the first year.

If it does not bloom, the cause if often that the soil has been over-fertilized.

Agastache has tall flower spikes with a pungent, spicy fragrance.

The scent varies depending on the species.

Removing the spent flowers throughout the growing season encourages continuous blooming.