Some are more moisture tolerant than others. Look at the leaf and bloom. If it's the wide leaf and has a bottlebrush bloom like the foeniculum, it can take more moisture and less sun than the rupestris, cana and other western/narrow leaf/tubular flower varieties.

More tolerant of moisture (no standing water) and partial shade in southern states, but will perform best with full sun; rabbit and deer resistant:

Blue Fortune
Honeybee Blue
Black Adder
Purple Haze

Hot, bright conditions, well-drained soil, drought tolerant, rabbit and deer resistant:

Salmon & Pink
Purple Pygmy
Heather Queen
Coronado
Sunset types (orange colors)

I added 'Summer Sky' in midsummer and will wait to see if that over winters.

I'm also conducting trials for two new introductions for a nursery grower. I'll report on those at the appropriate time in the future.

I've posted this photo too many times, but here it is again!

Cameron

Does anyone have an idea of the range of width to expect? I know everyone's conditions are different....just an idea?

Anyways, the width varies greatly between cultivars. Also, two cultivars that no one has mentioned yet are 'Rosita' and 'Heat Wave'. Both very beautiful. Bluestone perennials carries Heat Wave, and High Country Gardens sells Rosita. One thing I will say about these plants is that the western species (rupestris and cana mostly) WILL NOT tolerate clay soil at all (They demand good drainage). Unfortunately, that's what we have here...I tried to amend my soil this past fall to make it more suitable for plants that like well-drained soil. We'll see if the soil is any better in spring...

As I said, I am going to give agastaches another try this year, in another bed that has looser soil. I don't know if that's much help to you or not...

Purple Pygmy is really finicky IMHO. I tried unsuccessfully from seeds, so I bought a 4-cell pack of it and only 1 survived. I really want a short agastache (I may just have to decide to pinch back some of my taller ones!)

Redsox - the width varies from type, but Blue Fortune can go in narrow spaces and pack more tightly together than some of the others. I have it cramped packed together to make a "fence" up against pineapple sage and clumping bamboo. In the pic below, that's Blue Fortune with Salmon & Pink behind it.

Salmon & Pink (my favorite) needs 4 feet of width in 3 years of growth if starting from a 4" pot. It can be divided in spring by shovel, just as handling nepeta.

I'm adding a photo of two young plants (not mature enough to be a mass planting) to show you the dazzling (to me) combination of orange and purple agastache used together. I have grouped several of each together for next year and moved my salvia 'caradonna', verbena 'homestead purple', echinacea 'Sundown' to create an orange and purple bed. I hope it meets my expectations! I figure it will either be gorgeous or downright ugly! LOL

Don't cut back agastache before winter (wait until spring). It's one of those square-stemmed types.

Cameron

I'm glad this question was asked. Last year, very late in the year, i got Rupestris, Salmon and Pink, Aculpulco Orange and Summer Glow. Bought them in small pots from High Country. Summer Glow really took off and bloomed a lot for me, much to my surprise, until we got frost. It was everything I hoped and more - I sure hope it comes back next year! Did not cut them back.

I also had A. cana which did very well surprisingly but it flopped and spread all over the place so I took it out. It was somewhat shaded where I had it near some roses, if it had full sun it may have been more upright growing. A hummingbird favorite. I have failed with most of the other agastaches I've tried, too much moisture in my soil. I have the same problem with most penstemons except digitalis.

If you are looking for tall airy perennials among roses try Salvia guaranitica 'Argentine Skies'. It gets about 5 feet tall with pale blue flowers. It's a good weaver with my taller hybrid musks, comes back every year and doesn't take over like Salvia g. 'Black and Blue'. I think there is a cobalt blue version called 'Van Remsen' that gets even taller but doen't spread at all. I tried Indigo Spires and Purple Majesty but they didn't come back. They both were a bit too dense and aggressive also, shading out some of my young roses.

It's a great color for blue -- caryopteris especially for similar conditions -- as well as orange coneflowers and pink coneflowers, though I've not put the two coneflowers side-by side! :-)

Bonnie

Bonnie -- I bought my orange agastache locally through a nursery that I can't even mention on GardenWeb (it's that NC nursery in Sanford, NC with initials of BB). They don't do mail order. I've been drooling over High Country Gardens varieties.

I was out looking at my orange agastache that I moved in fall (I don't usually move them until spring) and they are doing quite well, even after extremely cold and wet weather this winter.

Before moving my plants around this fall, I took individual photos, then put them together on a story board to see how the colors and bloom season fit together. This color scheme garden was created because the orange and purple agastache look so good together.

Cameron

From Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel

I do have problems with plants like yarrow and echinops by mid-summer due to the humidity. If you can grow those two, then you can definitely grow agastache.

Cameron