How To Grow And Care For Catmint

Enjoy the blooms of this low-maintenance perennial year after year.

Catmint is one of the prettiest low-maintenance perennials you can grow in your garden. It’s tough as nails and thrives in sand, clay, or rocky soils. It’s just about the perfect plant because it’s a fast-growing perennial, boasts long-lasting blooms, and lives for years with almost no care.

Pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds absolutely adore catmint’s spikes of purple-blue flowers that appear in late spring to early fall. As a member of the mint family, its pungent scent also make it unattractive to rabbits and deer. Fast-growing catmint is heat and drought-tolerant once established, too.

Catmint has an attractive clumping habit that works equally well along walkways, in landscape beds, and in containers. With its profusion of long-lasting purple flowers, it’s an ideal substitute for lavender, which is sometimes challenging to grow in the Southeast. Many new varieties have been introduced in recent years, including more compact types that keep a neat mounded shape.

Catmint Vs. Catnip

Catmint is often confused with catnip (Nepeta cataria), which is a related plant. Catnip also is aromatic but it’s far less ornamental and more weedy in appearance than catmint.

Catmint Care

Catmint is the perfect addition to the perennial garden because it requires little care once established. The bloom time is exceptionally long, and when the initial flush of flowers begin to fade, you can deadhead the plant to encourage reblooming. It’s also edible, and its leaves can be steeped to make a minty tea.

Light

Catmint needs full sun to thrive, which is considered 6 or more hours of direct sunlight. However, it will tolerate some afternoon shade.

Soil

Catmint grows in all types, including clay, sand, and rocky soils.

Water

Water new plantings the first season to get them established. Catmint typically does not need supplemental watering in subsequent years unless you are experiencing drought conditions.

Fertilizer

It’s not necessary to fertilize catmint. In fact, using fertilizer may cause poor flowering or plants that flop over. If plants fall over, shear back by about a third to rejuvenate the plant.

Pests and Diseases

Catmint is virtually pest and disease-free.

How To Propagate Catmint

You can divide these plants after a few years to keep them vigorous. Take a section in early spring. Use a shovel to chunk off a bit from the edge of the existing plant, then replant the new piece elsewhere in your garden. Keep the new section watered as it establishes its roots the first season, especially during dry spells.

Companion Plants for Catmint

Catmint can stand alone as a beautiful plant in containers or for edging walks or beds, but it also looks amazing alongside other sun-loving perennials. It’s also a good substitute for lavender if you like the color and form of lavender but struggle with its care in your garden. Good companions for catmint include: roses, peonies, salvia, lamb’s ear, and perennial geraniums.

Types of Catmint

• ‘Walker’s Low’ has a profusion of indigo blooms that last up to five months.

• ‘Whispurr Pink’ is a pink variety with lovely pale pink, extra-large flowers and silver foliage.

• ‘Cat’s Pajamas’ is a compact variety that gets about a foot tall and 20 inches wide.

• ‘Junior Walker’ boasts a neat, mounded shape up to 18 inches tall with silvery foliage.

• ‘Six Hills Giant’ has large blue flowers and reaches up to 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide. It’s a vigorous grower.
  

Related: The 11 Best Long-Lasting Perennials You Can Enjoy Year After Year

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