Last year was my first time growing agastache and I loved it! This was in full bloom.



I had 3 of them. One was Raspberry Daquiri and the other one was champagne? Anyway, it's the first week of May and none of them have shown any signs of life. I hope I didn't lose them. Do they usually come late?

Here I fear I lost a couple I planted last summer. But they have been slow. Some are just now coming into being again. Give it time, and prayer couldn't hurt.

Thanks Sean. You are in a warmer zone than me, so I'll just keep hoping!

Lori,

Beautiful pic. I agree with Sean.

Lori I am zone 6 and just seeing mine. I definitely wouldn't give up yet!

@LoriK

I've some Agastaches that are just showing a little (short) green growth and some with a lot more taller/wider growth. I've some in the ground and some in containers.

Just keep an eye out for them and their growth.

I'm still seeing nothing, even with the really warm temps over the weekend. I think they might be toast. However, I see tiny seedlings in the area so maybe I have some babies coming. I'll let those grow and hope they aren't weeds :D

My Agastache's are about 18 inches tall in the areas that I have Gravel mulch, in my other mulch areas (Non-rock) they are about 8 inches tall. I did lose two agastaches this winter one in each of the mulches. Sometimes they come a little later than other perennials, hopefully yours are not lost.

@LoriK

Keep us posted. Is the area well draining? With the very warm weather, have you given them a drink of water? When did you plant them?

I've one or two Agastaches (planted in the ground and established) that have a few buds on them and some that are in the ground that still don't have buds or flowers yet. The ones that are in containers that I planted last year, don't have any buds or flowers yet.

By the way, what variety is one in the above (first) post?

Marilyn,

These were planted in last spring and thrived over the summer and into fall. The soil is a bit sandy and well drained. I have been watering the garden in the hot weather. Everything else around these has come up very well. I think the problem stems from not having any insulating snow cover last winter. I was worried that I would lose a lot of plants because of that, but it seems only a few casualties. Even my butterfly bush is now showing signs of life, so I figured once that finally started, the Agastache would as well if they were going to.

Lori,
I am zone 6a and I have multiple Agastaches returned from last year, which is when they were new plants and first put in the ground. With sandy soil you should have adequate drainage and actually too much winter moisture can be more of a problem. Did you leave the old stems standing until spring before cutting them out? I read that is important, helps protect the crown and roots from too much winter moisture because if they are cut in fall or early winter, with the hollow stems it allows too much moisture in winter when they are dormant. I waited till spring to cut the old stems on mine and all but 2 of mine returned (and those I probably lost because I moved them several times and they didn't have a chance to get established well enough). The new growth on all of mine appeared before I cut out the old stems. I believe Raspberry Daquiri is an A Aurantiaca variety or hybrid and Champagne is A Mexicana, both of which should be hardy in your zone. My 2 A Apricot Sorites are Aurantiacas and they are both about a foot or more tall and pretty full but a bit too early for blooms. Hopefully you will get growth of some of the seedlings as many Agastaches do reseed themselves (although if hybrids they may not be true to the parent species). My other returning ones are A Blue Boa hybrid (I wrote a post about it because it came back way larger than any stated dimensions I have seen), and also 2 A Rupestris Sunset, and one A Heatwave hybrid (not sure of the parent species of it). Good luck! Agastaches are wonderful.

Excellent advice Judy!

jg0613 said:Lori,
Did you leave the old stems standing until spring before cutting them out? I read that is important, helps protect the crown and roots from too much winter moisture because if they are cut in fall or early winter, with the hollow stems it allows too much moisture in winter when they are dormant. .

I did leave the stems on over the winter, which I do with most perennials here because we can have some brutal winters, but without snow cover, maybe it just got too cold.

I don't care too much if the seedlings are not true to the parents because I just love the agastache. I fell in love with them last year!

I don't care if the seedlings aren't like the parents, since I too love Agastaches. Can't have too many Agastaches!

I planted Agastache this season for the first time, the plant seem to do well with lots of blooms. Toward the end of August they started to flop over quite a bit and I was just wondering if I did something wrong, too much water maybe? Should I stake these next Spring? I just didn't know if flopping over is something they do often or if its out of character?

@kelbell76

Welcome!

Your Agastache might have gotten too much water.

Agastache are drought tolerant (after the plants get established) and don't like to be watered a lot. They like a gravel mulch. They don't like to over fertilized. They like a lean and well draining soil. They like to be in full sun or full sun and partial shade. Plant the crown of the plant high and mulch with gravel to keep the water draining from the plant. Don't cut the stems in the fall to help with winter hardiness. Cut the old stems in spring after the threat of frost/freeze. Sometimes I wait till late spring to cut the old stems in case there's a late frost/freeze.

What variety do you have? Where in the US (or elsewhere) are you located?