As the intense heat of our Dallas summer sets in, it can take a toll on our garden plants. Many plants may be taking a summer vacation from blooming, leaving only the toughest and most heat-tolerant plants to put on a good show.
If you love plants that offer up both blooms and a pleasing aroma, be sure to consider catmint for your summer perennial garden. Catmint is a sprawling drought tolerant herb that produces masses of tiny purple flowers atop silvery-green foliage. Some species of catmint tend to be a bit “floppy”, or unkempt looking if you will. If you need something a bit more tight and tidy, consider catmint ‘Walker’s Low’.
‘Walker’s Low’ produces mounding silver foliage with stunning lavender blue flowers. In fact, it’s the vivid flower color that puts ‘Walker’s Low’ in a class of its own. When it comes to catmint, this variety has some of the most vivid blooms to be found. Flowers are abundant from late spring and continue through early fall, offering color during the hottest part of our summer. You can bump up up fall blooms by shearing catmint in late summer, which will encourage new growth and flowers.
A full sun location is the ideal situation for catmint, but it will tolerate some afternoon shade. Plants are very drought tolerant once they are established and they do prefer good drainage. If you’ve had trouble growing lavender, you might want to consider catmint ‘Walker’s Low’ as a substitute, as plants have a similar look in terms of foliage and flower color.
