Wendy:
I have nepeta subsessilis in my garden, and it is lovely! The bluish-purple blooms are the largest I have seen on a nepeta, almost pendulous. The sturdy upright form with the larger than average leaves created quite an impression when I saw it on the bench of my favourite nursery... like their catalogue states, " when the customer's see it, and realize it is a nepeta, they need to have it. I have actually put a cage around mine, it has grown so much.... take a chance, it'll become a conversation piece in no time!

Happy Gardening!

I too have this nepeta in my garden and have never found it weedy. Blooms for a very long period starting in early July and going through mid-August. I highly recommend this plant.

That's good to hear. Do either of you know which cultivar you have? or just straight species? They seem to vary a bit based on these descriptions:

http://www.lazyssfarm.com/Plants/Perennials/N-O_files/N-O.htm

I have N. subsessilis. It was not identified with a variety name when I bought it, so I believe it to be the 'straight species'. I love this plant. Ordered it from a catalog that said it would be to 18" tall...not! It is all of 40" and stands up beautifully. Droops for a while after hard rain, but soon stands itself right back up. The soil is heavy on the clay content but does dry out with no rain for 10 days or so. This Nepeta seems to take any condition in stride. It has been in bloom since very early June. I could cut it back to encourage more flowers in a couple weeks, but the few flowers that are left on each spike are a big draw for the hummingbirds, bees and butterflies. Plus now that some seeds have formed, the gold finches are regular visitors. As I recall, last year the original bloom spikes that began opening in early June had sparse, but continuous flowers opening into late September. Another thing good about Nepeta, I have yet to see any Japanese Beetles on any of my 3 varieties. This N. sub. has reseeded moderately and given me some plants to pass on to the neighbors who have admired it.

I saw this plant and I would like to get some myself...I was curious...does this handle partially shaded sites very well?
~Mike

I had this for a couple years - it grew like crazy and started to take over the spot where my hydrangea should be... so I dug it up this past spring and gave it to a colleague...

Anyway, to answer your question, Mike, it was in a partial shade area where it would just get morning sun, next to my Endless Summer hydrangeas. It did just fine with partial shade and moist soil...

I have it and am not impressed at all. I'd read here on GW about how great it was, but I think it's a dud. It blooms for a very long time, but the blooms never look very good. The plant is healthy, but it's just kind of washed out and unspectacular. Perhaps it gets too much sun. Mine is "sweet dreams".

I wonder if there is a fair amount of seed variation in this plant. I had some in my old garden (can't recall where I got it) and my assessment was like gottagarden's -- not worth having. Then I did get some from Bluestone a couple of years ago. In fairly damp soil they made pretty big plants, bloomed for months with relatively saturated blue flowers, overall a much better impression. Totally different from my first experience with this plant.

I also found a nice pink form of this plant last year that bloomed for 2 months solid, one plant made a good splash, and looked great next to Sedum Matronna and Euphobia 'Chocolate'. For some reason, this plant did not make as good impression this past summer.

Go figure. The lesson I remember is that it is often worth trying a different source (for seed grown plants anyway) and a different location for a given plant before you pass judgement on it. But once you have done that 2-3 times, no matter how much other people may praise a plant, if it's a dud for you, then it's a dud -- move on to something else.

Hi! I bought N. subsessilis only about a month ago, on the sale rack, so I cant really coment about its performance yet (though what flowers it did have on it were very pritty). I just to comment that this definitely is a CATmint. I woke up last week to find a huge cat sitting on my Chamaedrys Teucrium, munching contentedly on the neighboring Nepeta. Normally I would shoo it out of the garden, but Im actually hoping he will stick around to take care of the mouse problem!
CMK

Just an update...After I inquired last year, I got a Nepeta subsessillis species (blue) and 'Candy Cat' which is pink. THe blue one was (and still is) great. This picture doesn't do it justice. The pink one is not nearly as floriferous as the blue. No pic yet. A few small blooms just recently opened. Maybe next year it will leap.

Both of them have nice upright strong stems. Candy Cat is much shorter overall.

The voles got to the roots of the blue one. I had to dig it out and rescue it in a pot. It perked up fine with a little TLC. That little harmless looking lean on the left side was flat on the ground a week later!! dang voles.

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Wendy, here is a pic of my Nepeta S. (the straight stuff) taken about the middle of June. It is the tallest lavender color in the pic. Yours will look like this next year. There are 3 plants together here. There is a post above from me from last year.

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Yikes thats pretty big!! Lovely picture! I will have to move mine further back in the border if it gets THAT tall.

Wendy here is a pic I took just a half hour ago. I have cut back the Nepeta around the edges to allow for some rebloom. What you see in bloom here is the uncut center...left for the birds and bees. There is still a few flowers opening every day on those spikes from early June. The orange in the pic in Butterfly Weed.

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