Bloom Color

Interesting Notes

Grey-green foliage with bluish-purple flowers from April to October. Tough, easy to grow perennial, asking only a well-drained soil with good light. Drought resistant when established. This prolific bloomer benefits from a shearing several times during the season to remove spent flowers. 18-24" high. Named for the English garden Walker's Low. Hardy in zones 5-9. Relation to Catnip, but has no attraction to cats. Also so far, this seems to have little attraction to deer. gardenNJ.com

Sometime around May a certain fragrance tells us that it's time for sunny days and warm weather. It's Nepeta! Catmint, as it is commonly called, is a free bloomer whose billowy mounds of lavender, pink or white flowers are as opulent as its aromatic foliage.

Supposedly, this herb renders timid people fierce, and the botanist Tournefort tells of a hangman who couldn't cut the mustard "til he chewed a little catmint root." Have some Loosestrife around in case things get out of hand.

Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low' This low mounding newcomer has a clean-cut look that lasts throughout the summer, making it excellent for the front of a border. The deep lavender-blue flowers are some of the most vividly colored of the Nepetas we offer. Digging Dog

A carefree, mounding sprawler with bright gray-green leaves and soft lavender flowers. hosen as one of the five best plants for Northwest Gardens by the Great Plant Picks ommittee associated with the Miller Botanical Garden. Nonstop bloom. Joy Creek

Are you fascinated by the history and lore of herb gardens? With choices like medieval monastic gardens, Elizabethan knot gardens, cottage gardens, Colonial physic gardens, Chinese medicinal gardens, and kitchen gardens, you could landscape several yards and barely make a dent in the pile of books written about herbs.

The truth is, butterflies don't care how you approach herb gardening, so long as you set out their favorite nectar and larval plants. And as I've discovered on my tiny parcel of land, a bit of creative mixing can be attractive and enjoyable. Then, too, you get to spend hours explaining the history and uses of each herb to your unwary acquaintances.

Bees, butterflies, and a host of beneficial insects make their preference abundantly clear: they flock to a rich habitat of herbs, flowers and grasses, while ignoring conventional lawns and shrubs (which may offer little as nectar or larval host plants and which may contain pesticides).

If cats abound in your neighborhood, you've probably given up on raising catnip (Nepeta cataria). However, two butterfly pleasers are giant catmint (Nepeta sibirica) and Six Hills Giant Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii). http://butterflygardeners.com/herb.htm

Growing and Maintenance Tips

'Walker's Low' prefers sandy, well-drained soil in full sun. Very drought tolerant. Cut back foliage to promote a new flush of growth and to prolong flowering season. Propagate by division or cuttings in early summer. Seeds are sterile. Best used as a low growing groundcover, rock gardens, or edging in the perennial garden.