Agastache ‘Blue Fortune’ Seeds | Blue Agastache
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LATIN NAME: Agastache ‘Blue Fortune
COMMON NAME: Blue Agastache
Plant Profile
Blue Agastache belongs to the anise hyssops, a small group of North American mints grown for late colour and for leaves that smell of liquorice the moment they are brushed. Plants build upright clumps of square stems to roughly 90 cm, set with narrow, grey-green leaves whose serrated edges catch the light. The scent is strongest in the heat of the afternoon and clings to the fingers for several minutes after one leaf is crushed.
Flower opens in the second half of July and runs into September, later than most of the border has any right to look fresh. Each spike is a bottlebrush of small two-lipped florets arranged in whorls, opening from the bottom upward, which keeps a single head in colour for a month or more. The blue-violet tone sits in calyx and corolla both, so spent flowers fade to a dusky blue instead of browning on the stem. Stems are stiff enough to stand without staking in all but the windiest sites.
The name on the packet refers to a hybrid of Agastache rugosa and A. foeniculum, raised in the Netherlands and largely male-sterile. Seed saved from it does not reproduce the clone: seedlings arrive in a spread of blue, violet and occasionally soft pink, between 70 and 100 cm tall. That variability is worth knowing before sowing, and it is half the appeal if a mixed blue population is what you are after.
Science & Biotechnology
The aroma comes from glandular trichomes on leaves and calyces, which store an oil built mainly from phenylpropanoids and monoterpenes. In Agastache rugosa the dominant compound is usually estragole, with limonene and smaller sesquiterpene fractions; the American species lean more towards pulegone and menthone. Steam-distilled oil of A. rugosa has been screened for antifungal and insect-repellent activity, and the dried herb has a long record in Chinese practice under the name huoxiang.
Near-sterility has a practical consequence for breeders. Because the clone sets little viable seed, it is kept going from cuttings, and any seed line has to be rebuilt each generation from selected parents. What is sold as seed is therefore a population rather than a fixed cultivar, which explains why two sowings can give noticeably different flower colour and habit.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden the plant works hardest in late summer, when the first flush of perennials is over and the border is thinning. Bees of several species, bumblebees and butterflies all work the spikes, and in North America hummingbirds treat them as a filling station. The flowers hold well when cut and dry easily for winter arrangements if hung in a dark, airy place.
The leaves make a pleasant anise-flavoured infusion, though estragole content argues for occasional use rather than a daily habit, and pregnant gardeners are usually advised to leave it alone. Deer and rabbits ignore the aromatic foliage. On gravel or a hot dry bank the clump stays compact and dense; in rich irrigated soil it flops and wants cutting back at the end of May for a shorter, bushier second growth.
Growing from Seed
Sow on the surface, because the seed needs light, and press it into moist free-draining compost without covering it. Around 20°C brings germination in two to four weeks, and a few weeks of cold before sowing evens out the result if the packet has been in storage. Prick out when the first true leaves are open and grow the seedlings cool and bright rather than warm and soft.
An early sowing flowers in the first summer. Set plants out after the last frost at 35-40 cm apart in full sun, on ground that drains within a few hours of rain. Water through the first month, then only in real drought. Leave the stems standing over winter for seed heads and bird cover, and cut back to new basal growth in early April. On heavy wet soil the clumps are short-lived, so lift a few in autumn and hold them in pots through the worst of the winter.
Our Take
Grown as a population rather than a clone, it earns its place with a long blue season and a scent that advertises itself. Sow it where you will brush past on the way to the door, and cut the stems back hard in April to keep the clump dense.
Related Reading
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