Mexican hyssop

A new plant (to me) appeared this summer in local plant sales: Mexican hyssop.

Agastache mexicana belongs to a large, widespread genus, with species native to a variety of habitats, predominately in dry hilly areas of the Southwestern U.S., Mexico, Japan, and China.

There are already lots of selections, but I'm quite keen on the one that I obtained from a vendor at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville and the similar one that we had at our Garden plant sale this fall.

I thought I had a image of it sprawling out of the oak-half barrel, but apparently only kept this one, of a overnighting carpenter bee on a flower.

Bees and hummingbirds favor its large, nectar-rich flowers -- and, it has a long flowering time, so there's not much NOT to like about that.

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Mexican hyssop

I'm quite fond of hyssops (Agastache spp).

Southwestern U.S. and Mexican natives, they include all sorts of delightful plants that are well-suited to our often droughty summers.

Hummingbirds like to visit their flowers, and they're drought-tolerant, which first got me interested in them , but their variety of forms and flower shapes is equally entrancing.

I planted Mexican hyssop (Agastache mexicana) in an oak half-barrel near the porch early in the summer. The hummingbirds have been enjoying it.

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Rubeckia, Agastache, and Gaillardia

Gaillardia with flower fly

Rudbeckia subtomentosa 'Henry Eiler' is an unusual and robust selection of a midwestern black-eyed Susan -- the ray petals have a lovely rolled edge.

I've had fun learning more about western Agastache species -- there are some great candidates. I don't know what the species of this cultivar is, but it certainly is striking.

It's Agastache 'Summer Love' from Terra Nova Nursery.

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Summer gardening

I spent a wonderful morning in the garden: deadheading some early-flowering asters, trimming old stems, cutting back the leggy Agastache (anise-hyssop) to encourage branching, and snipping back spent Salvia flowers.

It's fun to tweak borders and vegetable garden blocks; this morning I focused on the shed border, moving a couple of plants that needed more space, or a different site, and freeing the edges from the inevitable Bermuda grass invasion.

I redid several containers near the potting bench, too, whose perennials had outgrown their pot, and created new plantings with shade-tolerant Heuchera (coral root or alum root), including one of the lime-green leaved ones I'd bought on a whim).

I'm enjoying this apricot Agastache -- I've forgotten the species (hopefully, I saved the tag or mentioned it in a blog post) -- its light open flowering pattern is lovely against the shed wall.

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