Accolades for Agastache

It's so easy to say nice things about agastache! At least in my garden and zone, it's close to perfection for a perennial.

Three years ago, I started with agastache 'Acapulco Salmon and Pink'. At least that's what my forum friends suggested as the correct variety. I lost the plant description tag a long time ago. I started with three of these agastache. Once I realized the long bloom season, I started dividing the agastache to increase the clumps in the butterfly garden. I've decided that the pink/orange tubular blooms work so well with the carmine and deep rose blooms of some of my front garden perennials, that I've started transplanting divisions to that area as well. Perhaps I'm going overboard and over-using this agastache. At this point, I feel like I can't get enough of a good thing. This agastache has bloomed continuously since it started back in early June. The blooms haven't faded. It's a nice, full shape of about 3 feet x 3 feet without any staking. It's rated for zones 5-10. The hummingbirds love it! If the color is too much for you, there are some milder colors available.

Here are a few photos from my garden. The agastache provide a colorful display in my butterfly garden.

Note: You can right-click and "open in a new window" to see these in a larger format. When you use a right-click to view a picture or website link, then you won't lose this main page.


Last year, I added 'Blue Fortune' which is a highly touted agastache among the plant retailers. This is another long-blooming agastache. However, the blooms have faded to a dusty blue in my full sun garden. If placed too close to pretty blues, it really looks a bit too dusty. I think it will work better beside some deep burgundy colors. So, I've done a bit of re-arranging to move this agastache away from my salvia 'Black and Blue'. This agastache is loved by Monarch butterflies. This is another tall agastache (3 feet), but not as wide as the 'Salmon and Pink' so you can tuck this narrow agastache in some tight spaces. It does need full sun to reach full height. I have some in part-sun that are only knee high.

Looking for a yellow/gold agastache, I bought a few seedlings of agastache 'Coronado' this spring. The color is more of a fiery gold/orange. However, I'm not put off by the color. I've moved the young plants close to my long-blooming sky-blue salvia uliginosa and my gold cestrum 'Orange Peel'. This is a shorter agastache of about 15" x 12". I cut a bloom and carried it around the garden to see what other colors worked with this. Well, the color works great with purples, blues, lavenders, and even my favorite echinacea 'Ruby Star' as it echoes the cone color. This agastache 'Coronado' is hardy in zones 4-8.

In my experience, the attributes of agastache are:

Deer resistant
Rabbit resistant
Long-blooming (June-frost for my garden)
Disease and pest resistant
Drought tolerant

About the only thing you need to do to take care of agastache is to plant them in full sun with well-drained soil. I leave the blooms on mine over the winter and cut it back in the spring. I don't deadhead any of these over the summer because they are always in bloom.

Agastache should be readily available at your local stores. However, there are many varieties available from the online plant retailers, too. Some of you have probably grown these from seeds. I've not yet tried that as the agastache seeds are the tiniest little things that I've ever seen! It's my understanding (haven't tried this at home) that you can tap the dried stems over a bowl to collect the seeds. Let me know how that works for you! :-)

I love the fragrance! I can walk through my butterfly garden and smell the minty foliage. Some of the blooms are also fragrant, depending upon the agastache. I'm now on the look out for more colors. Perhaps I'll add 'Purple Haze' or 'Black Adder' to my garden.

Garden Book: The Impressionist Garden

For many years, my favorite garden book has been The Impressionist Garden by Derek Fell.

Note: By the way, if you follow the link to the book (right-click to open a new window), you can actually preview the book pages and see the photos!

As described on the title page, it is based upon "Ideas and Inspiration from the Gardens and Paintings of the Impressionists." Although the book was published in 1994, I find that the interpretations of the impressionist gardens are still of interest to gardeners aspiring to achieve the look in their home gardens.

The author takes us through examples of the garden inspirations for paintings by Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh and other impressionist painters. Not only are there layout diagrams of the gardens of some of these artists, but the book also includes small garden design diagrams for the home gardener to get the impressionist look on a smaller scale. The use of color, light and the plants used to achieve the impressionist look are explored in great detail in the book.

While we've vacationed in France on three occasions, I've still not made it to Giverny to see Monet's Gardens...it's on my list of "must see" gardens in the world. So, I most enjoy reading the descriptions of how Monet developed his gardens and selected the flowers for the seasons.

Aside from the structured gardens, the artists were also influenced by meadows and wildflowers. For example, the Impressionists, Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh were influenced by fields of poppies, lavenders and other native plants of the south of France.

Thumb through Fell's book and you'll see glorious color photographs of the Impressionist paintings, the gardens, the gardening plans as well as ample text to describe the relationship between the flowers and the paintings.

What wonderful reading and inspiration for gardeners!

Happy Gardening,
Cameron

Fabulous Flower Seeds

My garden is full of perennials, shrubs, spring flowering bulbs, a few ornamental grasses and a few small trees. These have all been purchased in pots except for a few volunteer seedlings that have sprouted from the mother plants. This fall, I'm embarking on a new adventure...direct sowing annuals from seed!

I read the forums, asked a lot of questions, did my searching and decided to order from two companies. The order from Diane's Flower Seeds arrived in the mailbox today!

Ordering from Diane's Seeds was easy. Deciding which seeds to order was the challenge! There are so many great flowers from which to choose. I decided to try a few different poppies, larkspur, zinnia, and the perennial, echinacea 'Ruby Star' which is already a favorite in my garden (I just want more).

Click to enlarge the photos to read the planting instructions:





The seeds were ordered on Monday, August 18th and arrived today, Monday, August 25th. The seeds arrived by mail in a padded envelope. Each type of seed is individually packaged by hand in glassine envelopes to prevent static. My total order came to $15.45, including $2.95 for shipping.

Among my flower seeds was a surprise! Diane sent me free Cosmos sulphereus 'Ladybird Yellow'. That made me smile! The yellow color will be perfect in my garden.

Now...I've got to get out there and start planning. Yes, planning before I start planting. I want to weave these colors en masse in big swathes throughout the garden to fill in the gaps when the perennials aren't in full bloom. I'll write more about the garden design when I finish my plans and begin my planting.

Some of these seeds may be direct sown in the fall here in my NC zone 7. Others will be planted next spring. A new gardening adventure with fabulous flower seeds. And hopefully, another step toward real cottage gardening!

Happy Gardening!
Cameron