OMG...I LOVE Agastache! My faves over the past few years are:
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Desert Sunrise

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Blue Blazes

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Purple Haze

Agastache rupestris/sunset hyssop (grown from seed via winter sowing) growing next to Caryopteris/blue mist shrub on one side and winter sown butterfly bush on the other. This will be its third year in this spot.

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Golden jubilee was gorgeous too but it grew 4 ft. tall and as wide, much too large for the amount of space I gave it.

I love the pink of 'Firebird'.

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I'm so glad I stopped by, love all these pics!. I love my Blue Fortune agastache, sorry I don't have a photo.

I rooted cuttings of all my Acapulco Trio. All 3 colors rooted in 3 days. I had no idea these rooted so easily. I will be rooting more! They bloomed till frost.

I love Black Adder, Blue Fortune and Serpentine. They have already new shoots coming. They are much more hardy here than books claim.

'Black Adder' and 'Blue Fortune' are among my all time favorites too... but my absolute favorite last year was 'Ava'.

Cotton candy blooms all season for me. Heatwave planted last fall and is already taking off. These are vigorous plants.

The only one I have grown is Apache Sunset. Beautiful and you just can't beat a plant with leaves that smell like root beer!
That was a few years ago and at my previous home so this year I am growing it again.

Feel the stems on agastache--they're square, putting them in the mint family which explains (at least to some extent) their robust growth habit and long bloom period. I've got seeds ordered for some new ones to grow this year: Astello Indigo, Apache Sunset, Bolero & Raspberry Daiquiri. Pretty certain they'll brighten up the flowerbeds + the bees will thank me...

Favorite orange agastache? And if you bought your plants by mail order, were you satisfied w/ the company you bought them from? I would like to plant some orange agastache- love the scent and flowers. So far the agastache have not been hardy for me, but I want to try again. Thanks, Brandy

Brandyray, I just ordered my favorite, Cotton Candy, because I cannot find it locally. My first time ordering from this company. I will let you know how it turns out.

I have taken a pole(unscientific) among my resident Goldfinches and find they prefer the "blue" ones. We love to watch them cling to the swaying stem as they work their way around the flower pulling out the seeds. Al

Thank you, mollydog. I will look up "Cotton Candy".

I'm so excited to see other people love Agastache as much as I do! I discovered this plant last year and I can't get enough of it. Hopefully the ones I planted last summer will survive the exceptionally cold winter we had this year.

Right now I am sowing Sunset Hyssop and Mexican Hyssop in doors. My hope is they will survive through next winter and grow large to cover an ugly field across from my house which was left behind by some builders a few years ago. The soil is very sandy so I have been trying to work in fertilizer and compost but cost prevents me from really being able to do what I want to do there. Any suggestions as to how I can get my new agastache seedlings to thrive on the hill are welcomed! I'm new to gardening so tips are appreciated:)

The only Agastache I have had luck with is 'Golden Jubilee'. Love the gold foliage (except when it gets tired looking in summer), but not so keen on the wishy washy colored flowers. I tend to think that the foeniculum species are better able to handle our soggy winters/springs than the "western" sorts.

In the past I tried A. canna, aurantiaca 'Coronado' & 'Apricot Sprite', and possibly ruprestis (can't remember though! Might not have...). They would do fine first year and second, but after that they would dwindle away or not make it thru a winter. I did not find leaving the stems up during winter helped any.

I am sooo jealous of those that can get them to grow for you. I'm in love with 'Cotton Candy' and that new 'Grapefruit Nectar'. :'-(

Ps. curious, do all of you find your individual agastache plants long lived, or not so much? On average, how long?
CMK

I have several that are on their fourth year here. They are already sprouting. Golden Jubilee is very hardy here.

I love Agastache! Not surprising as I love meadows and they certainly are that style to me. I have not had great luck with getting them to come back every year. I have loamy clay and in zone 6a, that makes agastaches difficult because they love great drainage over the winter.

Honey Bee Blue always comes back and I've had it in the yard every year since I started it and I believe I still have original plants, but seedlings too.

I've tried a few that didn't survive. 'Apricot Desert' I believe was one. A. rupestris didn't come back in it's 2nd year which surprised me.

Last year, I tried Golden Jubilee and Black Adder for the first time so we shall see if they come back this year.

My favorite is 'Ava' which I got from High Country Gardens. It came back last season, after it's first winter and I'm hoping for getting through a 2nd winter. Here is a photo of it in it's second season....

That's a nice photo. I am ordering Ava this year finally!

I have access to

- "Tango"

- "Black Adder"

- "Heatwave"

- "Purple Haze"

- "Summer Glow"

- "Summer Sunset"

Do you guys have experience with the hot color offerings?

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This post was edited by rouge21 on Sat, Aug 24, 13 at 20:12

rouge21 - I've noticed the only Agastache that has been perennial for me in Z6a is the species A. rupestris/sunset hyssop. All the other cultivars (mentioned above) I grew from seed via winter sowing didn't survive our winter, which was more or less average. I'd looked forward to growing other types in my garden for the pollinators but it evidently wasn't meant to be.

I've had good luck with 'Blue Fortune'. Blooms July till frost. If it gets too tall, cut it back and within two weeks it's blooming again. I find that the cool blue color is a very good backing against red brick and for hot colors in front of it.

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This post was edited by boday on Mon, Aug 26, 13 at 0:55

Click on the link to an interesting video on agastaches

Here is a link that might be useful: Agastaches video

Wonderful gardens in that video 'wieslaw'. I wish there was a google oral translator.

good to see that Agastache survives your often trying winters.

UPDATE:

While I was out yesterday I picked up a healthy Agastache Black Adder. It made me happy to see it covered in bees even at the nursery.

Good for you! My black adders are just putting out their first flowers, and yes, the bees are all over them. Hummingbirds seem to prefer the hot colors, at least in my garden. I hope it winters over for you.

Cheryl

Thanks for the encouragement Cheryl. I would have thought that "Black Adder" would have started blooming (much) earlier?

Rouge, I'll tell you next year. Mine were planted at the beginning of July. All of the agastaches I have are supposed to flower from early summer to frost.

Cheryl

My 'Black Adder' started blooming much earlier, but it was straggly. I'm wondering if I wouldn't be better off pinching it back while it was young to increase the blooming stems and to get a later bloom?

yes, pm, pinch it back for a stockier, stalkier plant.
idabena

Thanks idabean, I'll try that next year. :-)

I'm glad to read 'Black Adder' was covered in bees. I saw some the other day and almost picked it up, but all the bees were on a catmint plant close by and pretty much ignoring the agastache. I assumed it wasn't a great variety for attracting pollinators, so I didn't buy it. May have to go back for that...

My favorite, and longest-lived, is Agastache scrophulariae. (Giant Purple Hyssop) It's in clay, in a partly shady area, and is thriving.

Rouge here is Agastache heatwave from last summer. A little behind this year but still looking great, these get big! I have three different agastache and they all seem to do well.

Thanks for the picture miclino...beautiful garden.

I have found out that most Agastaches can be short lived perennials. I am therefore looking for those that can be more durable and long-lived.

For example, Agastache rupestris is known to be a long-lived variety.

What others are out there?

Where are you? (you can add that under your profile under About Me.) I think how long-lived they are depends on the both the plant and the growing conditions. For me, Agastache rupestris is short-lived because years when we have either really cold temperatures without snow-cover or really cold wet springs, I lose mine. Mine are happy enough to reseed a few plants some years and they typically will return for 3-5 years before adverse conditions require replacement.

Many of the western Agastaches that I have tried are annuals in my garden, and I will have to look into some of the hardier blue Agastaches to find one or more that are both happy in my wet early spring and don't reseed too much. Anyone in colder zones have suggestions?

I am in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Yep... wet, sometimes snowy Winters.

Wet, rainy Springs... hot humid summers. Nice Fall weather, though.