Nepeta

Mm-hmm.

Oh, you love nepeta.

Nepeta is one of your favorites.

Catnip.

Yes.

Um, some Verbena bonariensis, some mint that's in flower, some alliums that are in flower.

Some, uh, Buddleja, and some Nepeta.

Now all these plants, as well as being like airy and drifty and pretty, um, they have got tubular flowers with a lovely big pot of nectar at the base of each flower.

And the bees have been loving these, and I should say not just bumblebees, but also honeybees.

So before you, like, dig up anything or make a decision, the first question has to be, like, what is this garden's purpose or what is it supposed to accomplish? Because, like, mature gardens often become, like, collections instead of sometimes compositions.

And you plant a Nepeta because you love the color.

Someone gives you a daylily.

[laughs] You find a heuchera on clearance.

So, so let's talk about, um, edit, move, or remove.

So editing means, like, the plant fundamentally deserves to stay, but it needs like an adjustment.

So maybe your Nepeta has become too large and is covering the front edge of your border [laughs] and you wanna give it to your best friend to take-

[laughs]

No, I liked all that.

Should we talk very quickly about the visitor vote winner? This is Nepeta Early Blue, and it took 32% of the vote, uh, of the visitors to Four Oaks, and that's from Far Plants, from Plants 4 Europe as well, who were, um, breeder's agent.

Uh, um, the Proptek Cool Pot won the best product according to the visitors to Four Oaks.

But there's a, a, a s- a story about the Nepeta.

Uh, it, at the, at the end of the show when everyone was tidying up, uh, the Nepeta had gone missing.

So if anybody's got the Nebi- Nebeta Early Blue, um, return it to Far Plants, no questions asked.

What do you reckon about that, Sally?

So there's no great arranging going on in this.

So the coreopsis went in, one perovskia blue spire, which is a kind of a lavender substitute or a Nepeta substitute-

Yeah

... for this time of the year.

Any of the Calaments are great.

The most common ones that we see in the trade are Calamenta Nepeta, subspecies Nepeta, Lesser Catmint is the name.

And then the other one is Calament Montrose, I believe, is the cultivar.

The blue one? And that one's blue.

So it's weird because if you read the descriptions on Calamenta Nepeta, they don't list it as being a true white flower, but a soft blue.

To me, it's white.

Now that white fades to a purpley blue, as the days start getting shorter and the nights start getting cooler, you'll start to see as the leaves bronze up a little bit, that white flower, what I call white, will...

Hyssop, Hyssopus vulgaris.

Catnip, Nepata cataria.

Lavender, Lavandula vera.

These plants, which are mostly natives of mild climates of the Old World, are characterized by having square stems, opposite simple leaves and branches, and more or less two-lipped flowers which appear in the axils of the leaves, occasionally alone, but usually several together, forming little whorls which often compose loose or compact spikes or racemes.

The colorless or pale yellow essential oil distilled with water from the seeds, which contain between five percent and seven and a half percent of it, has the characteristic flavor and odor of the fruit.

It is extensively employed in the manufacture of toilet articles, such as perfumery, and especially soaps.

Catnip or catmint, Nepata cataria, a perennial herb of the natural order Labiatae.

The popular name is an allusion to the attraction the plant has for cats.