Agastache foeniculum
Anise Hyssop
- Full sun to light shade
- Average to dry soil
- 3' to 4' height, 12" to 18" spacing.
- Ontario Native, Beginner Friendly, Happy in meadows and open woodlands, as well as cultivated gardens.
These are a pollinator magnet!
Bees, butterflies and skippers all enjoy their nectar each July, when they bloom in the Ottawa area.
Their common name is from the intense anise scent and flavour of their foliage, which those who fall into the pro-licorice camp (we have a split household on the topic) would likely enjoy as a warm or cool herbal tea.
One of the members of the mint family, these are in the clumping and seeding, rather than spreading camp, so they integrate fairly easily into garden cultivation while also being perfectly content in a meadow setting.
Happiest in full sun, they can manage with partial shade, although they will be a bit lankier, with fewer blossoms (the plant pictured is currently growing in part shade).
Height tends to be between 3’ and 4’ with a roughly 2’ spread.
They do well in average to dry conditions and will self seed freely if grown in a garden with a lot of bare soil but much less so where the ground is well covered with other plants and/or mulch.
Grown from seed gathered from plants purchased a few years ago at Grow Wild nursery, near Peterborough and seeds purchased from Prairie Moon Nursery.
There is a helpful guide on differentiating Agastache foeniculum from Agastache rugosa and mislabeled hybrids, such as Blue Fortune posted here: https://bigriverbigwoods.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/ThreeProblemSpecies_v3.pdf
