A good garden is like a layer-cake. Besides covering the ground, plants occupy vertical space too, and the best layouts vary the height between plants a lot, creating a layered effect that allows one plant of color and interest to be stacked on top of another. Placing shorter plants in front of taller ones allows you to see both of them when they are in bloom, and for foreground planting under 2 feet tall, perennials, rather than shrubs, give us the most opportunities. The Poquito™ Butter Yellow Agastache is a great little plant for this, growing hardly more than a foot tall, but covered from June to September in bright yellow flowers. Unlike annuals, perennial plants like this don’t need ripping out each winter and replacing next spring – they die down and then come back the following year. It’s a huge reduction in garden work, and a huge boost in garden color. Edge a path or highlight a bed – you can’t beat this little beauty for easy color.

Growing the Poquito™ Butter Yellow Agastache

Size and Appearance

The Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache is an herbaceous perennial plant. It sends up several upright leafy stems in spring, which then flower. In fall it dies back to the ground, resprouting in spring. There are about 20 branching stems, growing just 10 inches tall, topped by 5-inch flower spikes, and the plant grows about 15 inches wide. Each stem is covered in leaves arranged in pairs along it. These are ovals with toothed edges, and just less than 1½ inches long. The leaves are dark green and they have a unique smell when crushed of licorice and mint. They make very pleasant tea.

The first flower spikes begin to open in June, and each one is about 5-inches long and 1½ inches wide, packed with up to 350 bright, butter-yellow flowers. These are an inch long, shaped a little like bells flattened from the sides. They open in succession, which is why the flowering period is so long. Plus, after a spike has finished new ones rise from the same stem, keeping those blooms just coming and coming. The flowers are a magnet to bees, other pollinators, and to hummingbirds, so bring the kids out for a fun time watching these beautiful creatures.

Using the Poquito™ Butter Yellow Agastache in Your Garden

This plant is perfect for the sunniest spots in your garden, and it’s ideal for edging borders and paths everywhere. Space plants 12 inches apart for edging or group planting. It can also be mixed with other perennials, and with smaller shrubs, in an attractive mixed planting. Grow it at the foot of a wall, or beside a striking boulder. It can even be grown in planter boxes in hot zones, using a soil for cactus plants to give the good drainage it needs. You can also cut spikes for a vase in the house, where it will last a week or more.

Hardiness

The Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache is hardy in zone 5, with plenty of sun and very good drainage. It is also hardy in the hottest areas, all the way into zone10, in both the east and the west.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

The Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache should always be planted in full sun, with no more than an hour or two of shade each day. It grows well in all kinds of soils, including alkaline ones and rocky, gravel soils. It does best in richer soils, especially in hot areas, but it should have good drainage in all seasons. Avoid wet or low-lying areas.

Maintenance and Pruning

Talk about easy! The Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache stays problem-free, and it’s usually untroubled by pests or diseases, and ignored by deer, who don’t like the smell. It is compact and sturdy, without any need for support to keep it upright. Remove dead flower heads from time to time, cutting back to the first pair of leaves – new flower spikes will soon shoot out. In fall cut back the stems to the ground, and that is all the care needed for the year.

History and Origin of the Poquito™ Butter Yellow Agastache

Agastache is a plant in the mint family, but of course it isn’t a true mint, even if it is often called hummingbird mint. Some species are called giant hyssop. All but one of the 22 species in this group come from North America, ranging through the west, with different species found from Oregon to Mexico. Most grow in the southwest, in open, drier places. The hybrid variety sold with the trademark name of Poquito™ Butter Yellow was created by Terra Nova Nurseries, a plant breeding and tissue-culture nursery in Canby, Oregon. There Janet Egger worked with several species to create many hybrid seedlings, and it was through crossing those seedlings together that she created this plant. It was patented in 2019 with the name `TNAGAPBY`.

Buying the Poquito™ Butter Yellow Agastache at the Tree Center

The great little plant is a standout variety, and perfect wherever you want a dwarf plant for a sunny spot. Its bright butter-yellow blooms will cheer your days, and brighten your garden for month after month. But order now, and these hybrid Agastache are hot right now, and our stock will sell out very fast.