Catmint

The Catmint is a large family of herbally aromatic, highly ornamental, annual or perennial plants in the genus Nepeta. Nature Hills sells many varieties of the perennial variety, some that remain in tight-mounded clumps, or politely spreading and naturalizing forms! While truly native to Europe and Asia, these plants have freely naturalized here in the US.

With fuzzy, scallop-edged, opposite leaves and variously lavender-blue, white, to pink colored flowers with two-lipped corollas. The pollinators and beneficial insects will arrive in swarms for these nectar-rich flowering spires and spires! Even a hummingbird or two will drop by.

These perennials send up square, erect, and branched stems like the rest of their Mint-family relatives, averaging 1 to 3 feet high. You can pinch back your plants to keep them denser and lower growing.

Flowering throughout the late spring and early summer, with a rebloom that can last until fall, these are wonderfully long-lasting plants that are scented and aromatic from top to bottom!

Closely related to Catnip (also Nepeta), most cats find eating and rolling in Catmint to be pleasurable and intoxicating! Cats are only attracted to it when it is withering, or when the peculiar scent of the plant is excited by being bruised in gathering or transplanting. Dry the leaves and flowers for their treats, stuff their toys, and encourage your felines to scratch where you want them to instead of the couch.

Types of Catmint Plants

These drought-resistant plants are fantastic for Xeric sites, great to use in Fire-wise landscape plans, and pampered gardens alike! As suitable in containers and small gardens as they are in mass plantings, filling your landscape or container gardens with their fine-textured beauty!

The lowest-growing types of Catmint for edging and facer plants, container and garden fringe, and small-space landscaping, look into the showy Neptune, the floriferous Cat’s Pajamas, or the Dropmore Ornamental Catnip for decorating your garden with plants a foot tall or smaller!

The Six Hills Giant and Whispurr™ Pink and Whispurr™ Blue bring in height and heft to the landscape with flowers growing about 3 feet in height!

Plant spreading and naturalizing the showy Proven Winners® ColorChoice® Cat's Meow Catmint, and Catnip plants fill in large areas by creeping and spreading over large areas to fill them in with lavender blue and sage green waves!

Easy Care Catmints At NatureHills.com!

These full sun perennial plants are so easy and fast to grow! Some do well in part shade and afternoon shade in hotter climates. Many handling up to zones 8 to 10 heat and humidity without breaking a sweat! Other varieties are fantastically cold-tolerant, surviving winters down to USDA zones 3 and 4!

Catmint is easily grown in any garden soil and does not require moisture in the same way as the other Mints. Moderate yet regular water is needed during their first year in the ground, but once established, you only need to provide supplemental moisture during prolonged heat and drought to protect your investment.

Deadhead for repeat blooms until autumn, or snip flowers for bouquets! Catmint may be increased by dividing the plants in spring, or by letting the native varieties self-seed. Prune back the mounds in the late autumn or very early spring to tidy up the plants for the growing season. Once growing, you can pinch back the plants to double the branching and keep them smaller, and more compact while increasing the number of flowering stems.