I'm making a butterfly garden in my front yard and found a great plan at the Better Homes and Gardens website. Right now I'm trying to round up all the seeds I'll need, so if anyone has these three kinds of seeds and would like to trade, please post here and email me. Thanks!

Very nice specimen. You do have to give it a lot of room. There are somewhat smaller cultivars if your space is limited. One thing though, I'm not so sure it suckers so much as it reseeds. Yes the plants themselves get larger and woodier over time, but I think it is the seedlings that spread the most. My main control tactic is to be sure to deadhead it and cut it back in the fall, and I don't go and look at the garden in that area without taking a trowel or something to uproot any unwanted seedlings. I think as a plant they have a sort of golden period when they aren't so young and sparse, and yet they aren't so old and rasty and woody yet. They can look like the wicked witch of the west, and they can be really beautiful.

While species Agastache have been reliable performers/reseeders in my zone, I've not found that any of the cultivars have returned after a season or two. I've grown any number of them from seed via winter sowing without seeing any success in their second year. Even the volunteer Verbena bonariensis that showed up in my garden a couple of years ago has disappeared. Normally seed-grown winter sown perennials are hardier than nursery-grown plants but I haven't found Agastache particularly hardy compared to other perennials that are more zone-appropriate. Wish I could be of more help. I love RS and have paired it with Gaura lindheimeri in my cottage garden bed but thanks to wet conditions it hasn't prospered. In my garden the RS either gets full sun + too much water or appropriate moisture + too little sun. The zone thing may still be a problem but check out Tricyrtis hirta/toad lily. Mine are blooming now in both full shade and part sun--might work for you. Missouri Botanical Garden website rates it hardy to Z4. The flowers are speckled purple & white. Oh, and the bees love them.

I think they will do well together. I'm fairly new to Boise, Idaho, (1.5 yrs) and am amazed at how well roses do here. And this is high desert.