I am a big fan of agastaches too, and I think people are aware from the above discussion that there are the blue/lavendar agastaches, A. foeniculum and A. rugosa, and then there are a are the various species and hybrids in the pink-apricot-orange range. Both are very useful for me in the garden. In the first group, Blue Fortune is a wonderful long bloomer which grows almost anywhere, blooms for 2 solid months in July and August. There is a relatively newer plant called 'Black Adder' (from this same cross) that has more saturated purplish flowers, and in the few settings I have seen it, looked like an even better plant than 'Blue Fortune (at least if you tend to like more saturated darker colors --I do.....). There is also a brand new plant from this group called 'Purple Haze' which by pictures looks wonderful and is said to be the best of this group. It looks like the 'Heather Queen' above. You can buy it for a small fortune from WFF or wait till it becomes more available. This is just appearing at some of the larger wholesalers so should be much more widely available in a year or two. I think that one of the problems with some plants labelled Blue Fortune is that they may be inferior seedlings from the cross above. I had bad luck overwintering Tutti Frutti (lost 2 plants even in gravel garden with good drainage) but great luck with A. cana, A. rupestris, A. 'Ava' and I think a few others whose names I don't recall. Pay attention to the comments above regarding overwintering. All these are fully hardy in z5 if protected from winter wet. I don't cut any of mine back till spring. A. rupestris is an easy beautiful shrubby plant with attractive silvery foliage even when not in bloom. There are many available from High Country Gardens as stated above. Be careful -- they are addictive and like ordering candy from a candy shop. Once you figure them out, you just want more. And if you love hummingbirds in the garden, and you have other hummer plants, you will want lots of agastaches.

I owe many thanks to Cameron and Roper. Their posts last year piqued my curiosity and when I found gallon pots of Heatwave at $1 each last September I was hooked. This year I added Tutti-Frutti and Heather Queen from Lazy S's Farm. Had ordered Raspberry Summer too, but Deb said they had a crop loss. Last week on a nursery visit I lucked out and found Raspberry Summer and Summer Fiesta. I can't believe I went from zero agastaches to 24 in 8 months time.

Cat....I think I stick to tried and true entirely too much. I think I should be trying to find something a little different to grow like you and Bill. I've never heard of guinea hen flowers. I do like toad lilies but I tried one and it didn't make it through my winter. I hope you will post photos later. Bill...I never saw a slug in my yard until last year. We had a lot of rain that wouldn't let up and they started showing up. Where do they come from, out of nowhere? [g] You remind me of me... when I can't sleep in the summer, I will get up and go out in my pjs with the flashlight and a paper cup and look for earwigs, which I hate! They seem to love me for some reason. Just the same I enjoy being out there at that hour. You get to see all the night creatures and some of the fragrant plants make the trip worth it. And if there is a moon out, a warm breeze and it's very quiet, it's almost magical! And you can't see all your mistakes at night. [g]

I did as a child, but not much, because I didn't particularly like the taste, and because we didn't have a tree close to us. Made Christmas ornaments last year--glued a toothpick in every hole and spray painted them white. Some with half toothpicks, too.