Product Description
Nice hardy perennial with hairy stalks and leaves, its small white flowers with darker dots are organized in clusters. The overall look is somewhat gray. It usually forms dense bushy clumps; in ideal conditions it can spread too much, but can be easily managed by spade.
Many gardeners consider this plant more suitable for naturalizing in native plant gardens, meadows, prairie gardens, sunny or half-shade woodland edges or herb gardens. Looks very good with the robust structures of Baptisia, Asclepias sullivantii, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, and Silphium, or the spikes of Liatris.
The strongly scented leaves can be used to make good mint tea or tea blends. Other common names are American Mountain Mint, Whorled Mountain Mint; another full scientific name is Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. pilosum.
Picture copyright: US perennials
Blooming Time: July to August, flowers for 4 weeks
Size: usually 3’ tall (only 1.5-2’ in dry soil or half-shade) x up to 1-3’ wide (clonal colonies). Spacing 12”-18”
USDA Zones: 4 to 8
Culture: full sun to half-shade, grows best in rich loamy soil, but tolerates heavier clayish soil to rocky soils
Moisture Needs: medium, medium-dry, quite drought tolerant plant
Origin: native wildflower to Eastern and central United States, from Ontario to Michigan to Iowa, south to Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Naturally in black soil prairies, meadows in wooded areas, rocky upland forests, woodland edges, savannas, thickets, limestone glades, and abandoned fields.
Deer/Rabbit Resistant: yes / yes
Attracts Butterflies or Pollinators: it offers nectar-rich flowers that are very attractive to many insects – many native bees and wasps, honeybees, flies, small to medium-sized butterflies, skippers and beetles.
Attracts Hummingbirds: no
Pot Size: 3.5" x 4" perennial pot (1.22 pt/580 ml)