AGASTACHE

foeniculum

Anise Hyssop / Hummingbird Mint

If you are looking for an edible, long-blooming perennial and is fantastic for pollinators, Agastache deserves a spot in your sunny garden beds. Its nectar-rich, tubular flower spikes are irresistible to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. As a member of the mint family, its fragrant foliage offers an aromatic licorice-mint scent that naturally repels deer.

Agastache foeniculum & Hybrids

These robust varieties reliably return year after year on the Vineyard. They feature lavender-blue flower spikes from midsummer through fall and reseed gently in sunny spots.

Black Adder: An outstanding hybrid cross (A. foeniculum x A. rugosa) featuring deep smoky-violet buds that open to soft lavender-blue flowers.
Blue Fortune: A hybrid celebrated for its dense, 3-foot powder-blue flower spikes and exceptional humidity tolerance.
Golden Jubilee: Striking chartreuse-to-yellow foliage paired with dense blue-purple flower spikes.
Little Adder: A compact, dwarf version of 'Black Adder' that offers the same rich blue blooms on a shorter, mounded frame.

Growing Conditions

Sun: Thrives best in full sun.
Soil: Prefers dry-to-medium, well-draining soil.
Watering: Highly drought-tolerant once established. Avoid poorly drained or flooded areas, as wet winter soil causes root rot.

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Agastache (left corner) infront of the herb garden

‘Tender’ Agastache

Treated as Annuals

There are many other Agastache species and hybrids we carry. While nursery catalogs often list many hybrid Agastache as Zone 5 hardy, our Vineyard winter freeze-thaw cycles, combined with damp winter soil, make them tricky to perennialize. In a true Zone 5, the ground freezes and stays frozen, protecting the crowns. Therefore, we treat these varieties as long-season annuals. They bloom non-stop from early summer right up until a hard killing frost, often around Thanksgiving, filling the autumn garden with vibrant color.

Featured Varieties We Carry:

Agastache aurantiaca ‘Apricot Sprite’: We grow these from seed and are a great season extender. It is the perfect orange color for fall.
Kudos™ Series: Compact hybrids available in rich shades including Mandarin, Ambrosia, Coral, Gold and Silver Blue. Plant these in the summer for a long fall season of color. Their minty foliage is not eaten by deer.
‘Rosie Posey’ & ‘Peachie Keen’: These are shorter, more mounded plants with two-tone rose-pink and peach blooms. They want a sunny location and are drought tolerant once established. Easy to grow.
‘Mango Tango’: Vibrant magenta-pink buds that open to soft mango-orange flowers.

“Combine them with other season extenders like salvias and chrysanthemums. Plant them with late season asters, perennial sunflowers and rudbeckia for and unforgettable autumn display.” - Chris Wiley, owner

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Design Ideas

for Your Garden

Agastache is a versatile perennial, with many uses in the coastal landscape.

Rock Gardens: Pair compact varieties with creeping succulents, thyme, stonecrop (Sedum), dianthus, ice plant (Delosperma), and blue fescue (Festuca glauca).
Hellstrips & Curbsides: Plant along hot driveways or street borders with other low-water favorites like lavender, catmint, yarrow, beardtongue (Penstemon), and fountain grass (Pennisetum).
Patio Containers: Pot a dwarf Agastache in a decorative planter alongside lantana, gazania, or Osteospermum.
Pollinator Meadows: Naturalize in a sunny meadow alongside native black-eyed Susans, Liatris, purple coneflower (Echinacea), milkweed, and native asters.
Herb Gardens: Blend Anise Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum) into culinary gardens next to oregano, marjoram, sage, rosemary, thyme, and lavender.
Slopes & Banks: Mass along sunny hillsides, alternating groups of other drought tolerant plants like lavender, Russian sage (Perovskia) and tickseed (Coreopsis).
Late-Season Border: Pair with goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, maiden grass (Miscanthus), and little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) for a stunning prairie-style fall border.