New show bed planting for 2015.

I love Nepetas for their all round beauty, as well as great garden value, especially for smaller gardens, with stunning lacy, billowing, aromatic foliage, a long flowering season and a large number of blooms per plant. They are the perfect mounded shape for edging and softening borders, both delicate and elegant in all stages of growth. Also being hardy, they are easy to grow, with no serious pest problems. Other than, of course, their problematical attraction to some cats, they have great nectar flowers and so are much loved by bees, butterflies and moths - altogether an excellent herbaceous choice.

Nepetas are in flower from late spring to early autumn with terminal spikes of panicles of 2-lipped tubular flowers. Although the flowering times vary with the variety and location, they are all good value for their long individual flowering periods. Flowers vary in colour: there is one yellow variety, a small number of white, but mostly they are in blue, purple, lavender and pink hues. Most have beautiful silvery, grey green scalloped and hairy foliage which stays elegant all season, varying in height from 20cm to 1m. Favouring good drainage, they are a great choice for rock gardens and drought resistant planting, also for planting 'en-masse' for flowering ground cover or as edging plants for borders and pathways where they exude their aroma when brushed against.

Following a life long love of herbs ( I eventually grew over 500 varieties) I decided to specialise in the genera Nepeta and Monarda a few years ago and now hold National Collections of both. I currently have 104 accessions of Nepeta and am always on the hunt for more.