Not every garden has space for larger plants, and not every spot, even in the largest garden, calls for a tall plant. When you want lower plants for the front of your beds, or along a walkway, if it’s sunny look no further than the Poquito™ Lavender Agastache. This fabulous little guy fits the bill perfectly, slipping into all those awkward small spaces, and bringing them to life. In the ground or in a planter, this sun-lover sparkles with beautiful lavender blooms that blend with just about any other color in your garden. The creation of new Agastache plants like this one has taken gardeners by storm – what other plant has so much bloom for so many months of the year and grows so well for so little input? Once big and awkward, clever plant breeders have domesticated them and turned them into perfect, well-behaved garden plants everyone is falling head over heels for. Don’t miss out on the fun – and the easy life – that this great little plant will bring you. Adoraría un poquito de lavanda en mi jardín.

Growing the Poquito™ Lavender Agastache

Size and Appearance

The Poquito Lavender Agastache is a herbaceous perennial plant. It dies back to the roots each winter, and returns with new growth in the spring. Once established you can expect about 15 stems to sprout up, each one no more than 12 inches tall, before flowering, making a plant about 15 inches across. The stems are covered from the ground up with pairs of oval, dark-green leaves, 1¼ inches long with little soft teeth along the edges. If you crush a few leaves they give off a strong, pleasant smell that is a unique combination of licorice and mint. A few leaves, fresh or dried, make a pleasant and refreshing tea.

You can see the first flowers opening as early as May, and this incredible little plant keeps blooming right into October, without a break – it’s as reliable and ever-blooming as annual flowers, without needing annual replacement. The flower spikes can be as much as 8 inches long, giving your plant a total height of 15 to 18 inches when in bloom. Each flowering stem is packed from top to bottom with closely-packed whorls of blooms, with as a many as 600 blooms in it, and each one lasts about a month, with new ones constantly growing up from below the first spike – these extra spikes are the secret of its long bloom period. Each flower is ¾ of an inch long, tubular with a flaring mouth, and a beautiful purple-pink color – bright and cheerful anywhere in your garden. The darker buds deeper in the spike, waiting to open, make a dark background to the bright lavender, giving a striking two-tone effect. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds are drawn from miles around to these blooms, adding fun and excitement to your garden, especially for your children.

Using the Poquito™ Lavender Agastache in Your Garden

In every sunny spot in your garden there is a place for this great plant. Grow it in the front of shrub beds where you might traditionally plant a row of annual flowers – that’s one less garden job to do each year. Plant it along a path, or in a mixed flower bed. Grow it in the pocket of a rock garden, or in a pot or planter with other flowers and dwarf shrubs. Wherever you grow it, you’ll love its vibrant color and endless blooming.

Hardiness

In a sunny, very well-drained location, you can expect the Poquito Lavender Agastache to overwinter in zone 5. It will reliably survive from zone 6 to zone 10, loving both cooler and hot zones equally. It really enjoys hot, sunny places.

Sun Exposure and Soil Conditions

Plant the Poquito Lavender Agastache in full sun, which it loves and needs for continuous blooming. It can handle an hour or two of shade each day, but no more. Although it likes richer soils, even more important is good drainage. Avoid any wet or low-lying spots, especially in cooler zones, but plant freely in rougher soils, with rocks and gravel, as well as in alkaline soils. Almost all garden soils are perfect for this tough plant, which is drought tolerant once established in your garden.

Maintenance and Pruning

The Poquito Lavender Agastache is really easy to grow, and it normally has no problems at all with pests, diseases, or even with deer, who hate the smell we enjoy. It doesn’t need staking or support. For neatness and continuous blooming it helps to remove the flower stems as the last flowers fade. This encourages new flowers, but it isn’t essential. In late fall cut the stems back to ground-level, and that is all it takes to keep this plant great for years and years – told you it was easy!

History and Origin of the Poquito™ Lavender Agastache

Also called hummingbird mint and giant hyssop, the plants in the group Agastache all come from western North America, except for one from Asia. Most of the 22 species grow in the southwest and Mexico, but some are found as far north as Oregon. It always grows in open, sunny places. The trademark name Poquito™ belongs to Terra Nova Nurseries, one of America’s major plant breeding and tissue-culture labs, based in Canby, Oregon. Janet Egger is one of their breeders, and she created this group of dwarf Agastache by breeding together several species, re-crossing the seedlings she grew until she found what she was looking for. The plant made available as Poquito™ Lavender was patented in 2019 with the name ‘TNAGAPL’.

Buying the Poquito™ Lavender Agastache at the Tree Center

We love this great little ever-bloomer, and its brother the Poquito™ Lemon Yellow Agastache. Whichever you choose, get your order in right away, because these guys are being snapped up by keen gardeners everywhere, and they won’t be around for long at all.