Plant ID card |
|
|---|---|
Botanical name |
Agastache spp. |
Common name |
Agastache, Mexican tea, Korean mint. |
Family |
Lamiaceae. |
Origin |
North America, China, Japan. |
Dimensions |
From 45 cm to 1.5 meters, depending on the species. |
Foliage |
Oval leaves borne in pairs, edible. |
Bloom |
From June to October, tubular purple, bright blue or white flowers appear, with the scent of anise, licorice, etc. |
Exposure |
Sunny, partial shade tolerated. |
Ground |
Rich, well drained. |
Rusticity |
Up to -15°C. |
Agastache is an aromatic perennial perfectly suited to growing in beds, rock gardens or even pots.
It does not require any special maintenance and has the advantage of being aesthetic, beneficial and delicious.
During its long flowering period, foraging insects come to visit it, as well as nectar-producing insects such as butterflies such as the bindweed hawk moth.
Agastache: planting tips in the ground
When the frosts end, you can plant agastache plants.
Choose a
sunny location
so that you can fully benefit from its subtle taste.
Draining soil, a little poor, suits it well.
Dig a hole two to three times wider and deeper than the root ball and place a bed of gravel at the bottom.
Place the rootball straight and fill the hole with soil, compost and sand.
Too much fertilizer could make the plant too lush and tall, subsequently causing it to droop.
Respect a distance of
25 to 30 cm between each plant
.
Remember to water your agastache during periods of intense heat.
Also read: The top 20 aromatic herbs to grow at home
How to properly maintain agastache?
It is important
not to prune
agastache in winter, to preserve its resistance to cold.
Even if your eyes regularly land on bald and completely dry stems, hold on.
Wait until spring to prune and allow the secondary branches to start again.
Sometimes aesthetics just aren't the priority.
Make sure that the agastaches do not suffer from excess humidity in winter, otherwise they may rot and then die.
This is the Achilles heel of this aromatic plant.
Cover the stumps under an insulating layer of dead leaves.
Make sure that the agastaches do not suffer from excess humidity in winter, otherwise they may rot and then die.
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No use without permission.
How to sow agastache according to the rules of the art?
The lifespan of agastache is 4 to 5 years but its spontaneous sowing allows it to renew itself.
If you decide to harvest agastache seeds, store them dry and protected from light throughout the winter.
You can sow them
in March
,
under heated shelter (between 15 and 20°C)
.
To do this, pour a special seedling soil into a box, sow the seeds and cover them with well-decomposed compost.
Cover and place in the light for 1 to 3 months.
Make sure the substrate remains moist.
Transplant the young plants into the ground in May when you observe 5 or 6 leaves.
How to harvest agastache?
Spring and summer
are good seasons for harvesting this aromatic herb.
Choose
the morning
to take action: locate the well-filled tufts and pick the leaves.
Pull on the ears to collect the florets you need for your homemade dishes.
You can also cut a stem and dry it, hanging it upside down.
What are the differences between agastache varieties?
Depending on the variety, agastaches will have purple, purple, white, pink, orange, red flowers;
leaves of various shapes;
subtle scents and different aromas.
But if we had to classify them into two large groups, we would find on the one hand the rustic agastache, which can therefore be
cultivated as annuals
and present beautiful vegetation in spring: rough agastache or fennel agastache;
and agastache which fears the cold, more adapted to hot climates, such as golden agastache and Mexican agastache.
What are the medicinal properties of agastache?
The flowers of fennel agastache and rough agastache, as well as their dried leaves, can be used to make homemade herbal teas for an effective effect on digestion.
Some recognize it as having very interesting virtues to combat vomiting, reduce fever or even reduce dry coughs.
Agastache is also known for its calming power and is even said to help you fall asleep.
The flowers of fennel agastache and rough agastache, as well as their dried leaves, can be consumed as a herbal tea for an effective effect on digestion.
Copyright (c) 2019 Peter Turner Photography/Shutterstock.
No use without permission.
What does agastache taste like?
Depending on the variety chosen, the taste varies.
The flowers and leaves of agastache
rugosa
have an aniseed taste and agastache
rugosa 'After Eight'
even recalls the famous sweets of the same name, with delicious accents of...
cocoa-mint
!
The leaves of Mexican agastache 'Sangria' have a lemon and mint flavor.
Serpentine agastache and its large florets offer cinnamon aromas.
How to use agastache in cooking?
It is in North America and Asia that agastache is often used as an aromatic herb.
Leaves of all species and varieties can be used.
A few leaves with an aniseed, slightly minty flavor can be added to flavor a salad, a tabbouleh, a drink or a brioche.
The leaves can also be used raw, chopped or dried in herbal tea.
The flowers
are also edible.
Arranged on a cake or a biscuit, they are a sensation.
Blue Boa agastache, a new variety from
'Blue Fortune'
, has edible flowers, delicious in a strawberry salad.