Another fantastic color from the Arizona series of ultra-compact hummingbird mints. Less than a foot high and wide, this beautiful perennial blooms the first year from seed, offers terrific heat and drought tolerance, and sports unusual pale orange and dusty purple blooms above rich licorice-scented foliage.
Ideal for containers as well as the perennial border, Arizona Sandstone Hyssop is a pollinator magnet, bringing in butterflies and bees as well as the hummingbirds that give this perennial its common name. They begin as soon as the first flowers open in midsummersoftly colored, tubular, and boasting dusty purple buds and markings on terracotta-orange blooms. There's simply no other flower like it in the garden.
Expect the flowers to keep coming into fall in most climates, held above gray-green leaves that boast a powerful, evocative licorice-mint scent. On a warm summer day, Arizona Sandstone Hyssop perfumes the whole garden or patio.
Reaching just 8 to 10 inches high and wide, this anise hyssop is small enough for containers, and makes an excellent companion to unscented plants of all kinds. Its long, slender stems and tubular blooms pair well with daisy-shaped flowers from gaillardia to gazania, and its upright, arching habit is a good contrast for mounding petunias and layered geraniums. In the border or container, Arizona Sandstone Hyssop shows off.
And it's so easy to grow. Start the seeds indoors, transplant when the spring soil warms up, and it will even bloom for you the first year. Arizona Sandstone Hyssop loves heat, needs good soil drainage, and doesn't mind wet, cold, or even drought. Deer and other nibbling animals tend to leave it alone, thanks to the scented foliage. It's very low maintenance, and will thrive happily for years, bringing pollinators on the wing all season long. Highly recommended.
