Agastache Time Begins

It's time for the Agastache show. It began a couple of weeks ago, with the first blooms appearing. The show on some plants is getting into swing, others ('Desert Sunrise' and 'Ava) are a month or so out. The hummingbirds are happy. The colors in the photos seem to be more vibrant than the real thing, so be warned.

Agastache 'Firebird' usually opens its first blooms in the beginning of June, and as such is one of the first to show. As the season progresses, the spikes become more dense with flowers. Plants are relatively short and bushy for an agastache, and leaves are green. Although I have had trouble growing it from cuttings, after a few years, I found I was able to divide it.


Here's the same plant last year in October.


I bought this David Salman (High Country Gardens) hybrid 'Orange Flare' this year, and it was already in bloom. Perhaps it is just a greenhouse effect, but it hasn't stopped blooming. If it begins to bloom in April in the garden I'll be impressed. I'm not as impressed with the color - it is a washed out kind of orange, although in the cooler weather we had in the spring, the color was brighter and more salmon. It is 3/4 A. rupestris, and looks and smells like it. I'm hardly seeing any of the 1/4 A. cana. Flowers are not as bright as the pure A. rupestris in my garden. Leaves are grey.


Agastache rupestris is just beginning to bloom, but it may be late because it receives absolutely no irrigation. The ants seem to love it. Leaves are quite grey, and calyces are purple.


Agastache 'Acapulco Salmon & Pink' is another David Salman hybrid. The flowers look just like the photo in the catalog. It began blooming early, even before 'Firebird' but with just a few flowers, and only just came into full bloom. So far, it is a small plant, and the flowers are brightly colored. It doesn't have the bushy stature of 'Firebird' this year, but we'll see what next year brings.


High Country Gardens has highly touted Agastache 'Ava' as its finest hybrid. I'm not denying that it is a nice plant. The first year, despite being trampled by the stucco-istas, it grew to more than 3 feet tall and lived up to its claim of having colored calyces. The color is a vibrant red-purple, which as you know is not a color that I am particularly fond of. The spikes eventually became quite abundant as fall progressed. It is the latest blooming of the agastache that I grow, and right now there is only a hint of buds forming. As a hybrid of A. cana and A. barberi, plants require more water than other agastache I grow. These photos are from last year and the colors in the photos are muted compared to the real thing.