Plant of the Year

For maturing into a 4-foot specimen from a modest 6-inch starter plant within a season of growth;

For blooming almost immediately with an indescribable combination of "soft" magenta and "bright" orange sherbet, and then blooming continuously until after hard frost, with no deadheading, cutting back, or pruning;

For bestowing the subtlest mint fragrance upon those who brush against its foliage, pleasing to the human, baneful to the rabbit;

For making the bumblebees really, really happy (and, maybe, next year, the hummingbirds); and

For holding its stems in the most graceful of arcs for winter interest, until it's time to bloom again;

Agastache x 'Desert Sunrise' is Bookish Gardener's plant of the year for 2003.

(Aren't you relieved it wasn't a top ten list?)

Happy New Year, everyone!

Comments

[Alicia]

Happy New Year and many gorgeous blooms for 2004!

[Kathy]

Has it made it through a winter yet? I've heard not all of those agastaches are hardy. Or is it that they don't like "winter wet"? Same difference in my case.

[Bookish Gardener]

This one's reported hardy to zone 5 (a lot of agastaches aren't but are said to re-seed reliably--I've heard that about agastache foeniculum, for example). This will be its first winter, but I'm optimistic, since it's planted adjacent to the house's foundation in a very bright southern exposure, in gravel. I'm also following the advice to leave the stems unpruned over the winter to help in winter survival.

[Kathy]

It _is_ true about Agastache foeniculum. Sometimes the plants make it, sometimes they don't, but there's always puh-lenty of seedlings. They also have a wonderful fragrance--like licorice--and make a great iced tea, either by themselves or with another tea (green, black, etc.)