Unleash some planting purrfection with gorgeous and easy-care catmint
Every garden needs as many dependable, fuss-free plants as possible, particularly as climate change is making gardening increasingly challenging. Enter nepeta! Not only are they easy to grow, low maintenance and long-flowering, they’re also a magnet for bees and butterflies and make lovely cut flowers.
Nepeta are commonly known as catmint because cats are attracted to the leaves and they are also amember of the mint family. The leaves are sometimes lemon-scented but more often they have a delicious aroma that’s a combination of mint, lavender and sage.
The individual flowers, held on slender spires, tend to be dainty but they’re produced in such profusion they create a haze of colour that’s perfect for billowy cottage garden plantings. The vast majority are a shade of purple –generally lilac tones – but there are also a handful of white or pink options and one that’s yellow. The most popular have attractive grey-green foliage but a couple of the less well-known species have leaves that turn attractive autumnal shades.
Border beauties
Those that form loose mounds between 40–60cm tall are the most sought after as they’re wonderful for softening the edges of paths and borders; the fragrance from the leaves is also released as you brush past. They’re one of the best perennials for massed planting; for instance, planted in rows edging beds in a kitchen garden or rose garden and won’t self-seed and become a nuisance.
The size, habit, flower colour and broad tolerance of garden conditions of the racemosa and grandiflora types makes them a good alternative if you struggle to grow lavender. Those with more upright forms take up little space in a border while providing punctuations of height. When not in bloom they can provide interest too, as many are early into growth, forming mounds of fresh foliage alongside spring bulbs, and the tangled structure of the faded flower stems is worth leaving in place through autumn and winter, when it looks fantastic covered in frost or dusted with snow.
Our top picks...
N. racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’
Similar to ‘Six Hills Giant’ but more com
