Catmint
Nepeta cataria
A gray-green aromatic mound whose worst enemy is the neighborhood cat rather than any insect.
- Type
- Flower · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Silver and gray · Green
- Flower color
- Blue
- Sunlight
- Full sun keeps the growth compact and the flowering heavy.
- Watering
- Drought is no trouble once the roots are down.
- Feeding
- Rarely necessary — lean soil suits it better.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- Cut it hard after the first flush and it will bloom again.
- Mar–May Spring Growth
- May–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
- Plant spacing
- 17.7 in
- In-row spacing
- 17.7 in
- Between rows
- 22 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Fibrous
- Working depth
- 12–24 in
- Can reach
- 3 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 18 in–2 ft across, about 1–1.5× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 12 in of soil
A dense mass of roots through the topsoil with a few running deeper after water. Work the bed to a spade’s depth before planting and it will find everything it needs without much help.
The habit is Catmint’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Cats
- Recorded toxic
- Dogs
- Not on a list we read
Recorded as toxic to cats by ASPCA.
The entry names cats only, and is silent on dogs. It prints Catmint among its common names.
- Generally trouble-free No notable pest or disease problems when grown in the right conditions — one of the easy ones.
Roses, Lavender, Geraniums, Alliums
Flowers, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com