I've got a couple of them, Blue Fortune, Purple Haze, Black Adder, Honey Bee Blue, and Purple Pygmy. They start blooming early to mid summer and bloom until frost or almost at least. Purple Haze is my favorite, it is about 3 feet tall and wide and is beautiful - really purple without that kind of grey cast that some of the others have. I've got that one in the back of the garden since it is so tall and flowers at the top of the plant. Purple Pygmy went into the foundation planting in the middle for really long season color. I have one agastache by the mailbox that was doing the job of an annual, unfortunately it wasn't one of the hardier varieties and so I'm not sure it will come back. Most of the Agastache cana cultivars are very iffy here and it's mostly a matter of winter drainage and I haven't found a spot that they like yet. But the blue bottle brush types that I listed are perfectly hardy and not at all picky.

Thank you. I should have mentioned the location I was considering....kind of back of the bed in between some old garden roses. I was thinking that agastache would be a possibility or kniphofia. Very different, I know.

I live much further south than you, but I can tell you they don't like MY high humidity, and tend to rot if the soil isn't perfectly drained. On the other hand, they are blooming machines when planted in the right place. I just ordered seeds for the chartreuse leaved one. I decided to give it another try somewhere else.

Donna, are they more picky about drainage than say, stokesia? If you even have stokesia? Maybe I will just buy one locally, then, and give it a go.

Major distinction is that A. foeniculum and its most popular cultivar, 'Blue Fortune' is completely hardy in the east through at least zone 5 and maybe 4. The other Agastaches and all their cultivars are western, southwestern plants and are very sensitive to winter wet. They must be planted in well draining soil and should not be cut back until spring since the cut stems tend to draw water into the crown. Even then they can be iffy. All the A. I've ever grown are wonderful plants, very long blooming and completely deer resistant.

Oh, good point, are they rabbit resistant as well?

I have to add that i love allthe varieties of agastache, they attract hummingbirds and lots of bees! Thats whay i enjoy them so much. I was in the garden just checking things out, and a hummer came a landed within feet of me to hang out on the agastache. I have the fuzzy kind and the kind with the tubular flowers. (very scientific, right?) :)

I grow many varieties of agastache here in zone 7b. Love the plants as they meet my needs for full sun, drought tolerant, deer and rabbit resistant, long-blooming, low maintenance.

Some are more moisture tolerant than others. Look at the leaf and bloom. If it's the wide leaf and has a bottlebrush bloom like the foeniculum, it can take more moisture and less sun than the rupestris, cana and other western/narrow leaf/tubular flower varieties.

More tolerant of moisture (no standing water) and partial shade in southern states, but will perform best with full sun; rabbit and deer resistant:

Blue Fortune
Honeybee Blue
Black Adder
Purple Haze

Hot, bright conditions, well-drained soil, drought tolerant, rabbit and deer resistant:

Salmon & Pink
Purple Pygmy
Heather Queen
Coronado
Sunset types (orange colors)

I added 'Summer Sky' in midsummer and will wait to see if that over winters.

I'm also conducting trials for two new introductions for a nursery grower. I'll report on those at the appropriate time in the future.

I've posted this photo too many times, but here it is again!

Cameron

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Very pretty Cameron! I am glad someone asked about these because I've been thinking about trying some black adder in my garden but didn't know much about agastache. Now I know I NEED to have it! :)

Cameron, what a gorgeous picture! I might try one from the first list for a rose/perennial bed and one from the bottom list for a mailbox planting that does not get watered so much.

Does anyone have an idea of the range of width to expect? I know everyone's conditions are different....just an idea?

I have tried (and failed) to grow purple pygmy from seed. I would love to try growing this plant again, but not from seed!! If anyone has any seedling sprouting up in spring, I'll gladly trade for some.

Anyways, the width varies greatly between cultivars. Also, two cultivars that no one has mentioned yet are 'Rosita' and 'Heat Wave'. Both very beautiful. Bluestone perennials carries Heat Wave, and High Country Gardens sells Rosita. One thing I will say about these plants is that the western species (rupestris and cana mostly) WILL NOT tolerate clay soil at all (They demand good drainage). Unfortunately, that's what we have here...I tried to amend my soil this past fall to make it more suitable for plants that like well-drained soil. We'll see if the soil is any better in spring...

The agastache I tried was Blue Fortune. It bloomed its heart out until it rotted out in mid August that year. I grow Peachie's Pick Stokesia and it is one of my very best perennials. It doesn't flop, it blooms and blooms (with deadheading), multiplies like mad and the evergreen foliage always look healthy and neat.

As I said, I am going to give agastaches another try this year, in another bed that has looser soil. I don't know if that's much help to you or not...

I just realized that I left off 'Golden Jubilee' as it is another newcomer (in the photo) that I haven't tried to overwinter until now. I'll see how it goes, but it can use more moisture than the location where it is now as the gold leaves got a bit burned looking to me.

Purple Pygmy is really finicky IMHO. I tried unsuccessfully from seeds, so I bought a 4-cell pack of it and only 1 survived. I really want a short agastache (I may just have to decide to pinch back some of my taller ones!)

Redsox - the width varies from type, but Blue Fortune can go in narrow spaces and pack more tightly together than some of the others. I have it cramped packed together to make a "fence" up against pineapple sage and clumping bamboo. In the pic below, that's Blue Fortune with Salmon & Pink behind it.

Salmon & Pink (my favorite) needs 4 feet of width in 3 years of growth if starting from a 4" pot. It can be divided in spring by shovel, just as handling nepeta.

I'm adding a photo of two young plants (not mature enough to be a mass planting) to show you the dazzling (to me) combination of orange and purple agastache used together. I have grouped several of each together for next year and moved my salvia 'caradonna', verbena 'homestead purple', echinacea 'Sundown' to create an orange and purple bed. I hope it meets my expectations! I figure it will either be gorgeous or downright ugly! LOL

Don't cut back agastache before winter (wait until spring). It's one of those square-stemmed types.

Cameron

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Cameron, I got a salmon and pink after a testimonial from you earlier this summer. :) Four feet! Uh oh! I need to make room!

I'm glad this question was asked. Last year, very late in the year, i got Rupestris, Salmon and Pink, Aculpulco Orange and Summer Glow. Bought them in small pots from High Country. Summer Glow really took off and bloomed a lot for me, much to my surprise, until we got frost. It was everything I hoped and more - I sure hope it comes back next year! Did not cut them back.

Blue Fortune does very well here, it can tolerate an organic mulch unlike some of the western species. It is dense and coarse, I use it in a mixed border of roses and perennials. It can lodge late in the season if you don't pinch it back early. It stays nice and bushy and upright though. Its blooms last a very long time, into the late fall but get a bit pale blue washed out gray if you can deal with that. The bees and butterflies love it. Virtually problem-free.

I also had A. cana which did very well surprisingly but it flopped and spread all over the place so I took it out. It was somewhat shaded where I had it near some roses, if it had full sun it may have been more upright growing. A hummingbird favorite. I have failed with most of the other agastaches I've tried, too much moisture in my soil. I have the same problem with most penstemons except digitalis.

If you are looking for tall airy perennials among roses try Salvia guaranitica 'Argentine Skies'. It gets about 5 feet tall with pale blue flowers. It's a good weaver with my taller hybrid musks, comes back every year and doesn't take over like Salvia g. 'Black and Blue'. I think there is a cobalt blue version called 'Van Remsen' that gets even taller but doen't spread at all. I tried Indigo Spires and Purple Majesty but they didn't come back. They both were a bit too dense and aggressive also, shading out some of my young roses.

Connie -- it will take a few years! You can divide S&P into smaller clumps, but it looks best in the jumbo width!

It's a great color for blue -- caryopteris especially for similar conditions -- as well as orange coneflowers and pink coneflowers, though I've not put the two coneflowers side-by side! :-)

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Oh, I just love your pictures. :D

Wonbyherwits, I was just wondering. If your purple pygmy has produced any babies next year, could I possibly trade you for some. I've tried so many times to grow this plant from seed, but it just never works! I'd really like to grow this, but I'm fed up with seeds!

Cameron, where did you get your Agastache aurantiaca 'Navajo Sunset'? I have Agastache rupestris 'Apache Sunset', which I love, but yours is more orange, and less pink, which is better for my color scheme.

Bonnie

PerennialFan -- my Pygmy isn't very strong with tiny leaves barely showing right now while my others (also the tubular flower varieties) are showing large clumps of basal foliage. It's barely hanging in there, so I don't expect any way to divide it this spring.

Bonnie -- I bought my orange agastache locally through a nursery that I can't even mention on GardenWeb (it's that NC nursery in Sanford, NC with initials of BB). They don't do mail order. I've been drooling over High Country Gardens varieties.

I was out looking at my orange agastache that I moved in fall (I don't usually move them until spring) and they are doing quite well, even after extremely cold and wet weather this winter.

Before moving my plants around this fall, I took individual photos, then put them together on a story board to see how the colors and bloom season fit together. This color scheme garden was created because the orange and purple agastache look so good together.

Cameron {{gwi:194394}}From Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel

One more question....Bluestone plant info says not tolerant of humidity. I see many of you grow in humid conditions, though. How does that work out?

I just reread the thread about Donna's high humidity issue. I think I might give Blue Fortune or Honey Bee Blue a try and see how they do. Thanks!

I indeed have high humidity, but my agastache are planted on a slope, in full sun (all day) with a lot of air circulation. No problems at all.

I do have problems with plants like yarrow and echinops by mid-summer due to the humidity. If you can grow those two, then you can definitely grow agastache.

Cameron

I have grown Agastache "Desert Sunrise" from High Country Gardens in clay soil for 5 years. It gets overspray from the lawn sprinklers when the wind blows, but no direct watering. It has performed superbly while others, such as "Ava", have withered away in the clay. Definitely keep the stems standing until mid-late spring. I only cut last years growth down when the new growth is 2-3 inches high. Desert Sunrise is a hummingbird magnet. I usually have 2-3 birds fighting over my patch of 3.

I also have Desert Sunrise from High Country Gardens. It is one of my favorite plants. Since we have so much rain, I plant mine with lots of pea gravel and slightly mounded. I never cut it back until March when there is a lot of new growth. It is a fantastic plant and looks great with pinks, purples and even oranges.
I have a hummingbird feeder right above the plant and between the two, there is always lots of action.
Bonnie

A couple other cultivars worth mentioning are "heat wave" (which you can get at bluestone perennials) and "rosita" (High Country Gardens). I really like the way rosita looks (nice and tidy and not flopping all over the place) and I'm seriously considering planting it, but I'm not sure how well it would do in my clay (even though I heavily amended it this past winter). Also, since "desert sunrise" seems to be able to tolerate clay, it might just survive in my amended clay. If anyone has this in spring, please let me know! I'd love to get a start of this plant.