-i have always had luck with agastache. they do like to germ cool w/ bottom heat. do not cover with soil but press them lightly into the already damp soil.they need light to germ. also cover with clear plastic or a clear storage bin or aquarium to hasten germ, remove after germ. transplant at four good leaves.

-another thought is that your plant might be sterile

-agastache seeds are widely avaliable and not expensive

-i should have put this first, positively identify the plant.there are a lot of perennials,salvia,catmint ect., that have similar flowers. agastache usually has an overpowering minty smell that lingers when the leaves are crushed, much stronger than catmint which has a lighter more pleasent smell. post a photo and someone will be able to i.d.

peace

Agastache was the first container I wintersowed and the seeds are very tiny so I just sprinkled the seeds all over the top of a very large plastic container 11 x 14 inches filled with wet potting mix, misted them, covered them with a plastic vented cover and set them out in January.
By around end of April my container was filled with green sprouts. Give it a try. Carrie

PS Posting a picture of a container filled with sprouts - unfortunately, this container is not the agastache, but it had a similar appearance (it's coreopsis)

{{gwi:284880}}

agastache is not difficult to germinate. Majority of agastache are terrible self seeders. What was source of your seeds? Winter sowing works wonders/ read FAQ wintersowing forum/ and easiest way to do it. You can do it inside as well, easy warm germinator. If you describe what did you do maybe someone can come up with idea what did not work.

My seeds came from an agastache plant from my yard and it has been cold here colder than my fridge so they have already been chilled, but maybe that is the problem for they have been frosted except that these plants are known to seed themselves come spring so I dont know if that would even hold water. The process I have tried is indoors under a shop light in a soiless medium misted and covered with clear plastic. Im just not sure what temp the room where I have them should be. It is a small room and I have placed thermometer in there to keep it regulated. You see I have germinated several salvias and had no problem with them. IF I have to winter sow them, I may as well wait till spring and buy a plant or two.

I winter sowed both annual an perennial varieties last winter...both had excellent germination rates. TONS of plants...all of them flowered the first growing season. The annuals reached 4 and a half feet tall. I expect them to reseed.

winter sowing is easy - you just leave the container outside, rather than inside - same process just no thermometer and once in a while check to make sure the soil is still moist - not pushing any particular method, but it is worth trying, especially since you've had bad luck the other way

Thanks everyone for your input , Im sure you could feel my frustration coming thru.

Carrie thanks for your input and the great pic and I went to winter sowing/faq and saw the great pics last night and guess what I now have two containers being wintersowed. I have a lot of other seeds that I will be sowing inside for I have experimented already with those. Its the agastache that I have outside right now , not to say that I wont add more to it. I went to the [winter sowing outside] and she had a lot of good ideas for containers . Using what I had I used the infor on coolwhip containers I had. Also according to her thoughts I immediately thought of the taco salad containers you get from taco bell would perfect, but I dont have any right now but wish I did. Anyway I have to ck further some annuals for winter sowing , once again thanks for your help and enccouragment.

just make sure your containers are deep enough - some of those salad containers (and foil chinese pans) are too shallow - It's so much easier when you have deeper containers because then you don't have to worry about watering... (in the winter, very rarely do you have to water, and usually we bottom water not to dislodge the seeds).

Wintersowing will open up a whole new world for you - keep us posted!!

Carrie

I have some Agastache seeds that I was considering trying to germinate but wasn't sure how to best go about it. After reading the previous posts, I was wondering whether it would be better to try germinating them under lights or by putting them in a plastic container on my window box. I have had Honey Bee in the refrigerator for a year and hope they are still pretty viable. If I try a plastic salad bar container outside at this time, would it work? We have 40 to 55 degree weather here now and who knows if/when it will get below freezing.

Rosebug4U - try wintersowing like hummersteve. It worked for my agastache last year - I had more than I knew what to do with! The beauty of wintersowing is that you just stick it out there and ignore it. It will, at some point, probably go through one or more freezes, but you just don't worry about that!

Goodness, when I first winter-sowed agastache, I must have sown every one of the 200 seeds that came in the packet - and I do believe every stinking one of them germinated! I had agastache coming out of my ears!

Last year I wintersowed Honey Bee Blue. I sowed only two containers, (much more restraint this time, lol!) and had great success again.

Do try winter sowing. It works.

:)
Dee

For the last two years, I have put my containers outside with agastache seeds in them around the middle to end of January.

They were very easy to germinate outside and actually I planted them out in hunks and had a terrific display all summer. I also did the Honey Bee that way, too.

Good luck - Carrie (try and few that way and see how you like it - then next year you can do even more)

Make sure you read the FAQ's for WS'ing...there are few rules but the few are very important (drainage, ventilation, etc...).

Here is a link that might be useful: WS'ing FAQ's

Thanks for the website link on WS'ing. If it is that easy, I will definitely try sowing my Honey Bee outside. All I need are few, but I'll sow more just in case.