4 tips on growing Catmint

Pretty and cheerful with its blue and white trumpet-shaped flowers, Catmint is an easy-growing addition for your yard as a border decoration or herb garden accent. These growing tips will help you successfully grow this easy-care perennial.

First of all, don’t confuse Catmint with Catnip. The latter is a favourite of felines but the former is what adds charm to a garden! In summer, Catmint grows abundantly - up to one-metre high contrasting nicely with surrounding foliage. It’s a great plant for spots where you want strong early summer colour and, once the blooms pass, a thick, velvety and lightly fragrant foliage grows for the rest of the season.

Catmint comes in an exciting range of colours to suit your yard colour scheme. Here are some examples:

• 'Dropmore', which at only 0.3 metres tall, has deep lavender flowers that are larger than those of other varieties.
• 'Snowflake' is similar in stature but has white flowers.
• 'Dawn to Dusk' has light pink blossoms and grows to one-metre.
• 'Six Hills Giant', is one of the best known varieties of Catmint. It has violet-blue flowers, which can act as a low-maintenance, seasonal hedge.
• 'Walker's Low' can form a sturdy round orb that doesn't part in the centre under the weight of its own flowers, making it ideal for use as a hedge.

Once established, catmint is a tough plant well adapted to even the poorest and grittiest of soil. Naturally though, it grows best in fertile soil in full shade with a little bit of afternoon shade in regions where the summers are long and hot. These tips will help you care for your Catmint:

• Mulch and fertilizer are unnecessary. Catmint will grow well without either of these.
• Although Catmint is in the mint family and will grow in average-to-moist soil, it's not a water guzzler like its relatives.
• It's virtually pest and disease free.

• Start with small nursery plants.
• Dig a hole as deep and twice as wide as the root ball and gently pull the roots loose so they can grow freely.
• Set the plant into the hole and fill with crumbly soil.
• After planting, water well to eliminate air pockets and water every few days until you see new growth.
• From then on, water only if the plants begin to wilt in the heat. Established plantings survive for years.
• Divide clumps only when the central portions of plant clumps begin to stop flowering and die, or if you want to increase your stock.

Follow these tips for successful growth and care of this hardy flowering plant. With its varied colours, Catmint will spice up your garden for years to come.