There’s nothing quite like the sages (Salvia) and catmints (Nepeta) for bushy, vibrant spires of rich purples and lavenders in late spring. Beebalm, lavender and agastache follow up, with the latter going right into fall. Aromatics are among the easiest and most trouble-free of all perennials to grow, in part due to their menthol-like aromas which keep many pests at bay.
Bee balm (Monarda), also known as bergamot, is a garden favorite with its brilliant red or lavender flowers in midsummer. Bee balm is native to eastern North America; hence its Native American common name, Oswego Tea.
Equally carefree are the hummingbird mints (Agastache). They can’t be beat for pulling in the pollinators from spring to frost. An excellent plant for the mid-border, this minty selection combines well with just about everything.
Then there’s English lavender (Lavandula), everyone’s favorite aromatic herb. Lavenders have a similar form to mint and of course their fabulous scent makes them a standout in any garden. But lavenders can be challenging to grow in hot, rainy, humid summers with cold winters. Fortunately, salvia, beebalm, and catmint, all members of the mint family (Lamiaceae), make excellent substitutes for lavender in the garden, even if their scents are very different.
Besides sharing aromatic foliage, lavenders and mints bear upright racemes of small florets on the ends of square stems with toothed foliage. Most have very pleasant or slightly pungent-smelling foliage when brushed against or crushed, but a few salvias will have you swearing a tomcat marked his territory there — phew!
Let me hasten to point out the upside to pungent aroma: it acts as a super-repellent against chewing pests and critters of all kinds. It’s rare to have badly chewed salvias. Nothing wrong with that — I don’t mind “pungently aromatic” in exchange for especially easy care!
This article is long and covers several species, so here are some links if you prefer to jump around. (Use your Back button to return.)
Salvias, or Sage
Salvia’s common name “sage” refers to its long history in ancient times as a treatment for pain. Today we grow these plants for their considerable ornamental value rather than medicinal use, along with a few for culinary purposes. There are anywhere from 700 – 3000 species worldwide (depending on what you include) encompassing shrubs, herbacious perennials and annuals. That’s a lot to pick from!
We’re all familiar with annual salvias, whose brilliant reds and purples blanket sunny flowerbeds and nursery benches everywhere, but they aren’t the focus here. This is about the perennial species.
Perennial salvias are vibrant too; they just flower for a briefer period than the annuals. They are among the first perennials to light up the spriing garden — and what a show it is! A mass of salvia in full bloom is color intense, to say the least! You can’t beat it for the wow factor.
By early summer they’ve finished their spring fling and take a rest. With a hard prune and some deadheading, they’ll produce a second flush of color in early fall. Some years, they manage to intermittently bloom all summer, even without a major post-spring trim. So easy!
Two of the best perennial salvias are purple Mainacht (often translated as May Night; also called Wood Sage) and Caradonna (Woodland Sage). Mainacht forms robust basal clumps with fat purple racemes. Caradonna has a more refined habit with pencil-thin racemes. Both are wonderful in the mixed border and tough as nails. They aren’t the only choices; new cultivars are coming on the market all the time. But I can vouch for these two personally.
For naturalized areas, Caradonna’s more billowy form (and slightly darker purple coloring) looks most at home. But feel free to use it anywhere. Mine coexists nicely side-by-side with Mainacht and other perennials to great effect.
Right foreground: My spearmint clump
Spearmint
Most of us are well aware of culinary mints’ tendency to run rampant all over the place. For me, the flavor of spearmint (Mentha spicata) is so lovely in iced tea, fruit cups, cucumber water, mojitos, tabbouleh and so on — that I can’t do without it. One solution is to grow it in a pot or confined within a semi-sunken barrier to corral the runners. I found this works for a while but be forewarned, mint contained this way will be trying its best to escape before the summer’s done.
Another way is to deal with unwanted spread is to site it in mostly shade (just 2 – 3 hours of morning sun) which is what I do. Lower light slows it down considerably. I pinch off the budding tips for culinary use which also slows it down. When drying or freezing the leaves, I make sure to harvest early in the summer for peak flavor. Straight spearmint or a blend of several mints makes an excellent tea, hot or cold. After harvesting the leaves for drying, let it bloom if you like– the bees will certainly thank you.
By the way, if you grow other mints like apple, mojito, pineapple, chocolate or peppermint, treat them the same way but separate them in the garden to avoid possible cross-pollination, which can result in muddied flavors.
When my shaded spearmint eventually impedes on its neighbors by late summer, it’s a simple matter of cutting it down or pulling it out by half. A hard annual pruning is certainly preferable to every other week in sun!
Blue Sage
A good salvia for a natural garden or among tall grasses is our native prairie sage or blue sage (Salvia azurea). It blooms midsummer into fall, when its sky-blue flowers are really welcome among all the yellows and oranges prevalent in August and September.
Blue sage grows anywhere from 3 to 5 feet tall. It needs plenty of sun, good drainage, dry conditions and lean soil. If your soil is rich or the season is overly wet, it will likely sprawl or flop, so plant it among tall companions like ironweed, pyeweed or wild bergamot to help support it. You can also cut it back by half early on for a shorter, less floppy plant. It’s lovely with coneflowers, black-eyed susans, butterfly weed, yarrow and daylilies, just to name a few. I do want to stress that the flowers are petite and somewhat sparse, so it looks best planted in groups or drifts. It also is quite slow to establish.
Herbal Sage
If you grow culinary sage for kitchen use, try to harvest the leaves before the plant flowers, when the essential oils are at their peak. After pollination the oils lose some of their potency. That said, sage foliage stays evergreen a long time, well into early winter and long after flowering. I’ve harvested fresh sage on Thanksgiving Day and even in light December snows, and the leaves were still viable enough for cooking. Sage-garlic butter on pasta is a treat any time of year!
Culinary sage gets woody and leggy if it’s not pruned regularly. After bloom, cut it back for a flush of new growth at the base and redirect energy to the roots. Make sure it has good drainage, as wet winter conditions can easily kill it or set it back.
Hummingbird Mint (Agastache)
Aromatic agastache, a member of the mint family related to hyssop, is one of my new favorite perennials. It flowers practically “forever” and the bees go bonkers for it. And yes, hummingbirds like it too.
Popular Blue Fortune (a cool lavender), Blue Boa (reddish lavender), Black Adder (medium purple) and lesser known Ava (deep pink) are among the top cultivars I grow; all exceed 25 inches in height, but seldom more than 40″. I like the taller varieties because they blend so well with other natives and contribute both presence and bulk. (Ava is an exclusive introduction by High Country Gardens, who specializes in the propagation of agastache. Their website currently offers over 20 cultivars for sale.)
Agastache comprises 22 species native to North America. They are similar to European hyssop but not the same thing. The European species (Hyssopus officianalis) has a history of medicinal use since Biblical times, as well as use as a flavoring agent in liquors like absinthe and Chartreuse. The flavor profile is a minty bitter licorice.
Agastaches produce prodigious amounts of nectar. If for no other reason, plant this perennial to enjoy the pollinators it supports. Even the monarchs like it; they might cement their chrysalises to its sturdy stems, as they did this past summer in my garden.
There are many new agastache cultivars on the market in shades of orange, coral, red and even yellow in a variety of heights. Many are around 18″ – 20″ tall, perfect for the mid-border.
A few are taller, but not as tall as our native giant hyssop (white), which can reach six feet! (Not recommended except for meadows). If you’re looking for a warm colored cultivar, Firebird is a a good medium-height orange.
The short varieties have a wider color range but can be quite delicate in form. That’s not a defect, just a trait; be sure you know what you’re getting to avoid disappointment. Tango, for instance, is a luscious coral, but the blooms are so airy they get lost among more robust neighbors unless you plant several together. The dwarf Kudos Red is brilliant scarlet, but tops out at just 10″ high. That’s the perfect size for edging, but not suitable for the mid-border.
One thing to remember about agastache is that it needs excellent drainage. It cannot tolerate wet feet for very long. Keep it sited a bit high of ground level if you have clay, and mix in some sand or perlite when planting. The drier the conditions, the better. Also, don’t cut it to the ground in fall; let at least 10″ of dead stem (or all of it) standing over winter. For whatever reason, that helps a great deal.
Catmint (Nepeta)
Everyone knows this carefree perennial with its cloud of lavender whorls in spring. Just to be clear, catmint is not the same as catnip, nor does it contain anywhere near as much nepetalactone, the essential oil that drives cats batty, as catnip does. Catmint is also a much prettier plant! Thankfully, most cats leave it alone.
You’re probably familiar with the common cultivars Walkers Low and Six Hills Giant. Interestingly, the former is not “low” at 30 inches tall; (Low is actually someone’s name; it has nothing to do with height.) And Six Hills, while taller than Walkers at 36 inches, isn’t exactly giant! So much for descriptive names. Confusing is more like it.
But both are lovely and reliable despite a tendency to flop as they max out in July. Of the two, Walkers is more compact with denser flower spikes. A quick shearing after the main bloom will keep catmints neat and tidy. Truly sprawling specimens can be cut back hard, and any desired dividing can be done at the same time.
Besides the usual blue-lavender, catmints also come in pink and white, but neither are as showy as the blues. All fit in easily with many other perennials, especially silver-foliaged companions.
New compact introductions feature better flowering, short habits and ever more vibrant colors. Why not try one to complement what you’ve already got? Two that are getting rave reviews online are Cat’s Pajamas and Cat’s Meow. (Notice the florets go all the way to the ground on Cat’s Pajamas in the photo). However, I haven’t grown these myself so I can’t vouch for their hardiness. Have you? Let us know in the comments.
Scarlet Bee Balm (Monarda didyma)
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention bee balm, or bergamot as many tea lovers like to call this aromatic mint relative. The scent is reminiscent of bergamot orange, the unique flavor component in Earl Grey tea. I must confess, I actually enjoy weeding around monarda– it smells divine!
One of my favorite cultivars is Purple Rooster, because I prefer the color to the bright red of Jacob Cline, the original cultivar for which bee balm is best known. Unfortunately Jacob Cline is very susceptible to powdery mildew, a common problem that plagues many bee balms, so I no longer grow it. The photo here was taken at my previous residence where it grew unrestrained into a massive patch. Every few years I’d have to rip it out by the barrel-full.
I do grow Marshall’s Delight, a nice medium pink and a much more restrained choice that doesn’t spread much at all. Both Purple Rooster and Marshall’s Delight are among the best for powdery mildew resistance. Claire Grace (lavender-pink) is another top-rated resistant cultivar according to Mt. Cuba’s monarda trials. Others include Raspberry Wine, Violet Queen, Colrain Red, Dark Ponticum and Gardenview Scarlet.
Some of the new short or dwarf bee balms like Leading Lady Lilac and others are disappointing in that the flowering period is early but brief, and pollinators ignore them. (The marketing hype may claim otherwise, so beware.) Leading Lady’s foliage is quite pretty, however: downy soft to the touch, a little puckered with a burgundy tint. The large lilac-pink flowers are very attractive with light spotting on the outer petals. I just wish the flowers lasted beyond late spring. It’s a good thing the foliage is so nice, because that’s what you’ll be looking at all summer!
Wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) is quite tall and a much paler lavender than any of the hybrid cultivars, really only suitable for naturalized areas or among other tall perennials. I have it on my bank where it blends happily among the daylilies and coneflowers. It’s also slow to establish and late to break dormancy. But at least the deer don’t eat it! It’s also more airy in habit than the hybrid cultivars.
Care and Maintenance
All of the mints are super easy to grow. They’re not picky about soil so long as they get decent drainage, adequate moisture and plenty of sun. They’re quite hardy in zone 6 and last for many years under normal conditions and basic garden hygiene. Unbothered by pests or bad weather, they always look fresh and smell great — or at least intriguing! Other than cutting back to contain their spread, they need basically no care at all.
Lavenders
I’ve tried growing all the commonly available lavenders — Hidcote, Grosso, English, French and even some intermedia hybrids with mixed results. Some years it’s lovely, but mostly it’s a sorry disappointment. Rarely does lavender survive for me more than three seasons in the ground, and it struggles every year. Siting it in a pot in a loose gritty mix helps considerably, as does storing it in the garage over winter where it can stay dry. Lavenders are Mediterranean plants after all. They hate our wet, humid conditions. What’s been your experience? Let us know in the comments.
A relatively new introduction is Phenomenal, bred to better withstand high heat and humidity. A friend grows it in a raised stonewall bed in full sun where it positively thrives, looking and smelling magnificent. I tried Phenomenal once but it didn’t impress. I need to try it again with a grittier mix. I really can’t recommend any lavender cultivar other than Phenomenal except in pots in zone 6, and then with some protection from excessive rain.
If you want to try another lavender cultivar anyway, do put in a raised bed, pot or planter. Lavenders need sharp drainage, lean alkaline soil, average moisture, full sun and moderate temperatures, plus some protection in winter. If you can provide that, you’ll be giving them the best chance for success. After all, who doesn’t want to be able to harvest armfuls of their own lavender! It’s unmatched in arrangements, sachets, tea, herbs de provence, wreaths etc.
So there you have it. Do plant some aromatics this year if you haven’t already. Most are trouble-free, a breeze to grow, delectable for the table and wonderful to admire. That’s a lot of return for very little effort on your part.
Thank you for all the great information and beautiful photos…..
You’re very welcome!