Nepeta
Catmint
Sometime around May a certain fragrance tells us that it’s time for sunny days and warm weather. It’s Nepeta! Catmint, as it is commonly called, is a free bloomer whose billowy mounds of blue-violet, lavender, pink or white flowers are as opulent as its aromatic foliage. Supposedly, this herb renders timid people fierce, and the botanist Tournefort tells of a hangman who couldn’t cut the mustard “until he chewed a little catmint root.” Have some Loosestrife around in case things get out of hand. Cut back in July for an encore in the fall.
Despite its name, this outstanding Kashmiri native will give you nothing to be nervous about. With an upright and bushy stance, N. nervosa features handsome, deep green foliage that’s veined and somewhat linear in shape, accompanied by large dense clusters of dark blue flowers. Plant at the base of Buddleja crispa, and enjoy the strikingly classic contrast of blue and silver.
Blooms July–August.
Size: 12" – 18" high x 15" wide.
Hardy to zone 5.
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Other selections in this genus:
- Nepeta ‘Blue Dragon’
- Nepeta ‘Dropmore’
- Nepeta faassenii ‘Kit Cat’
- Nepeta x faassenii ‘Purrsian Blue’
- Nepeta x faassenii ‘Select Blue’
- Nepeta grandiflora ‘Dawn to Dusk’
- Nepeta grandiflora ‘Wild Cat’
- Nepeta grandiflorum ‘Summer Magic’
- Nepeta ‘Hill Grounds’
- Nepeta x ‘Joanna Reed’
- Nepeta kubanica ‘Bokratune’
- Nepeta latifolia
- Nepeta ‘Longipes’
- Nepeta manchuriensis ‘Manchu Blue’
- Nepeta nuda ssp. albiflora
- Nepeta parnassica
- Nepeta ‘Pool Bank’
- Nepeta ‘Psfike (Little Trudy)™’
- Nepeta racemosa ‘Little Titch’
- Nepeta racemosa ‘Superba’
- Nepeta racemosa ‘Walkers Low’
- Nepeta reichenbachiana
- Nepeta sibirica ‘Souvenir d’ A. Chaudron’
- Nepeta x ‘Six Hills Giant’
- Nepeta ‘Snowflake’
- Nepeta stewartiana
- Nepeta subsessilis ‘Blue Dreams’
- Nepeta subsessilis ‘Cool Cat’
- Nepeta subsessilis ‘Sweet Dreams’
- Nepeta subsessilis ‘Washfield’
