Welcome to Plant Exchange Blog. It’s a summer day here in USDA Zone 4-5a. We’re ready for some of the best flower days of the season.
In our region, Catmint or Nepeta is one of the earliest perennials to bloom and continue until frost. Dusty lavender blooms are among the first to attract pollinators in the season. Two kinds of bees are shown here.
This herb grows well in poor soil and is drought tolerant. It is not preferred by rabbits or deer.
Billowy clumps of catmint have brighter color and shape with adequate moisture. As with some plants with lower water needs, over-watering produces a large flattened (instead of upright) flower stalks with a hole in the middle of the clump. If flower stalks are pruned, the plant regrows in a more natural shape. Catmint may be dug and divided; most often in fall or spring. More on Netpeta in How Our Garden Grows by Mary Ellen Connelly, a Sioux Falls author.
Members of the genus Nepeta include catnip, an herb that cats like. We gave our daughter’s cat a catmint plant as a treat and after that she developed a plant habit. Indoor plants had bite marks on them, possibly checking for more of this herb. The catmint present was one of our daughter’s least favorite.
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I used to train the cat mint very good cat