It's Agastache foeniculum or "blue giant hyssop", and it seems pretty much every seed that hit the soil in this container has germinated.
The other day this caught my eye, as the seedlings were a little smaller and looked more like moss out of the corner of my eye. I wondered how so much moss grew in this pot.
But it's obviously not moss. It is instead one of the plants with the most delightfully fragrant foliage in my yard. Minty, sweet, and a little spicy. Smells so good, and tastes as good as it smells.
At first I wondered where all of the seedlings came from, but then I realized that I hadn't removed the seed heads from the plants in a nearby pot:
As you can see they're all hanging upside-down over this pot, so all of their seeds must have fallen here.
Their own pot has its own share of seedlings too:
The other pot nearby contains a different species of Agastache:
This is Agastache 'Pink Pop', or what you get after several years of seedlings. I'm not sure that the plants are as floriferous as they once were. The seedlings look a little different than the foeniculum, with more triangular leaves:
They are almost as fragrant as the foeniculum, but more minty than sweet. I could use this to reseed my lawn too:
I've got some major thinning to do here, but at least I'll have plenty of seedlings to transplant to other parts of the yard. There's no point in keeping these only in pots on the deck, as the bees love both of them. Spreading bee targets around the yard is a good thing!
So although I won't actually be sprinkling these into my lawn, I will be enjoying the miniature "lawn" in these pots -- for at least a few more days until the seedlings get larger.
Then I'll love thinning these little guys out, as they smell just as good when tiny as they do when all grown up.
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All that came from it reseeding itself? Wow.
ReplyDeleteAnd you say it's eatable too? Sounds like a nice plant.
Well, I chew the leaves for their flavor, but I don't actually eat them. I think I've read that it's used for flavoring foods and for teas, but I'd have to double-check that.
ReplyDeleteIf your 'Pink Pop' has degraded, it could be due to cross-pollination, maybe? I've read the different agastaches will dilute each other if planted too close. I am really curious what 'too close' actually measures out at.
ReplyDeleteAlso lovely. How many different plants do you have growing on your property? Any idea?
ReplyDeleteHa- good work in detecting the culprit seed pods. I had this same experience with a self-seeding garlic last year (and the smell was a little less pleasant). It's a reminder that even weeds have a rhyme or reason for appearing in our gardens.
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