While June is known as pollinator month and plants for pollinators get a promotional boost, pollinators need food throughout the growing season, and this is where Agastache comes in with its long bloom period.

Agastache is a member of the mint family and as such provides plenty of nectar for both insects and hummingbirds. There are over twenty species, many of which are native to the Americas with others originating in Asia. It has aromatic foliage, which means deer and rabbits leave it alone. Like many aromatic plants, they relish sun, are drought tolerant and prefer to be treated somewhat “lean and mean”. The one thing they don’t care for is wet winter soil: those hailing from warmer parts of the country particularly need a free-draining soil to perform well.

Agastache comes in a variety of heights, ranging from 12” all the way up to the 6’ grandeur of A. scrophulariifolia. Flowers come a swath of colors from white, pink, red, orange, yellow, purple and blue and with regular deadheading will perform for a number of weeks. If preferred, they can be allowed to go to seed which will provide food for seed-eating birds.

Common varieties of Agastache often found for sale include:

A. foeniculum, commonly known as anise hyssop is native to the upper U.S. and Canada, growing in USDA Zones 3-8. It has medicinal uses and can be used to make a herbal tea with a licorice-anise flavor. Its leaves can also be eaten fresh in salads or dried to use in potpourri. It grows about 4’ tall and generally has spikes of purple-blue flowers although there can be variation with some plants being almost white and others ranging through shades of lavender to the more usual darker tones of purple. A. Black Adder is a more compact hybrid with dark buds and violet-red flowers.

A. rugosa, Korean hyssop, is similar to A. foeniculum in flower and leaf color. Hardy through USDA Zones 4-9 its flowers last for weeks and its large leaves have an intense mint flavor. It has been crossed with A. foeniculum to produce a couple of bold cultivars: Blue Fortune reaches 3’ tall with violet flowers and Golden Jubilee, also around 3’ tall with chartreuse to lime-green foliage and violet flowers.

A. repestris, commonly known as licorice mint, thread leaf or sunset hyssop is native to southwestern U.S. and with its narrow aromatic leaves and flowers in shades of yellow, orange and red it is highly drought tolerant. Like all Agastache, it is long blooming and this can be extended by dead-heading to promote further flowers.

A. aurantiaca, known as orange hummingbird mint is species from northern Mexico. Growing about 3’ tall it produces vibrant spikes of salmon colored flowers on pink calyxes. Similar to A. repestris, this species also has long tubular flowers that make it a hummingbird magnet.

The Kudos series of Agastache is a great selection for more compact plants that work well in the front of a border or in containers. With dense flower spikes this series comes in shades of mostly yellow, peach or pink and reaches just 15” tall. As an added bonus they have also been bred to have greater hardiness, particular in parts of the country that have wetter winters or humid summers.

Beelicious®️ Pink is a cultivar with soft pink flowers that stand out against their deep burgundy calyxes. It reaches 24-30” tall and is hardy from USDA Zone 6-9. This is another cultivar bred from A. rugosa and has been developed for color, hardiness and resistance to fungal disease.

Honey Sticks Embers is a cultivar of A. rupestris boasting dense spikes of orange flowers held on a more compact sized plant which reaches just 12-18” tall. With the typical long bloom period of Agastache this variety is another one that will perform well in containers.

Blue Boa is another long-blooming cultivar, probably a cross between A. foeniculum and A. Rugosa, but whatever its parentage, it offers long-lasting, vivid purple blue flowers on a plant that gets to be 30” tall.

The popularity of Agastache is increasing as gardeners discover the many varieties of this hard-working perennial. If you wish for a plant that blooms for weeks on end, is scented, critter resistant, attractive to pollinators and you can offer it sun and good drainage, this is an easy-care plant for you. And with a color palate nearly as broad as the rainbow, these plants are winners all round.

Sources:

https://mrplantgeek.com/2024/09/02/the-feast-for-bees-agastache-beelicious/

https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/anise-hyssop-agastache-foeniculum/