Food-Gardening Lessons From A Wartime Victory Garden

What Potting Mix is Best for Planting Agastache in the Southwest?

Licorice mint is one of the best species for New Mexican gardens. (Image by Jessie Keith)

“I have rooted Agastache cuttings in perlite and seed starting mix, but now they are ready for real pots and soil. What would you suggest for the soil or soil mix?” Question from Melissa of El Prado, New Mexico

Answer: Hyssops or hummingbird mints (Agastache spp.) are fragrant perennials in the mint family with lovely flowers beloved by hummingbirds and bees. Like many mints, they grow best in soil that is well-drained and moderately fertile. Black Gold Waterhold Cocoblend Potting Mix is a great organic option for potted perennials. It has excellent water-holding capacity to help them access ample moisture in your southwestern garden.

Enjoy your Agastache! They are certainly one of my favorite garden flowers for beautiful blooms, fragrance, and pollinator attraction. My favorite western species is drought-tolerant licorice mint (Agastache rupestris). It has fine, silvery leaves and clusters of hummingbird-attracting flowers in shades of rose, orange, and purple. It’s also native to your state! You won’t find a prettier species, in my opinion.

Happy gardening,

Jessie Keith

Black Gold Horticulturist

 

 

About JESSIE KEITH

Plants are the lens Jessie views the world through because they’re all-sustaining. (“They feed, clothe, house and heal us. They produce the air we breathe and even make us smell pretty.”) She’s a garden writer and photographer with degrees in both horticulture and plant biology from Purdue and Michigan State Universities. Her degrees were bolstered by internships at Longwood Gardens and the American Horticultural Society. She has since worked for many horticultural institutions and companies and now manages communications for Sun Gro Horticulture, the parent company of Black Gold. Her joy is sharing all things green and lovely with her two daughters.

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