Common Name: giant hyssop
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Lamiaceae
Zone: 5 to 9
Height: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet
Bloom Time: June to September
Bloom Description: Purple
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Annual, Herb
Flower: Showy, Fragrant
Leaf: Fragrant
Attracts: Butterflies
Tolerate: Deer
Culture
Easily grown in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerates light shade but best in full sun. Also tolerates drought, poor soils, summer heat and humidity. Plants in this genus are non-invasive in the garden.
SONORAN SUNSET is a patented plant that does not produce viable seed.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Agastache cana, commonly called hyssop or hummingbird mint, is an herbaceous woody-based perennial of the mint family that features a late spring bloom of tubular, sweetly fragrant, rose-pink to raspberry-pink tubular flowers which bloom in whorls on erect, salvia-like, terminal flowering spikes (to 12” long) rising to 2-3’ tall with a spread to 1.5’. Pointed, oval leaves (to 1 1/2” long and 1/2”wide) are aromatic. Double bubblemint is an additional common name for this plant based upon the flowers purportedly having a fragrance similar to that of chewing gum. This plant is native to mountainous areas to 6000’ in New Mexico and western Texas where it is sometimes commonly called mosquito plant because rubbing the aromatic foliage on one’s skin reportedly repels mosquitoes. Leaves may be used fresh or dried to flavor teas.
Genus name comes from the Greek words agan meaning "very much" and stachys meaning "ear of wheat" in reference to the appearance of the flower spikes.
Specific epithet from Latin means gray-haired or hoary in reference to the gray-green leaves of this plant.
‘Sinning’, sold in commerce under the trademarked name of SONORAN SUNSET, produces purple flowers over a longer bloom period than species plants. This is a compact cultivar that typically grows to only 16” tall and as wide. Flowers appear over a long mid-June through September bloom. ‘Sinning’ is the result of a cross taken in 1999 between non-patented unnamed proprietary male and female seedling selections of Agastache cana. Plant patent PP13,673 was issued March 25, 2003. Inventor of this patented plant is Duane Sinning, hence the cultivar name of ‘Sinning’.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Rock gardens, borders, herb gardens or butterfly gardens. Containers.