Soft mounds of dreamy, grey-green foliage lightly fragranced when crushed; purple/lilac flowers adored by bees and butterflies; the ability to grow in some of the hottest, toughest spots – these characteristics make Nepeta a common and deserved addition to any garden despite only recently being trialled for garden worthiness by the RHS.
I started gardening in East Kent in the early 1990s, during a succession of hot, dry summers. While working for my local college as part of the grounds maintenance team, I discovered a plant that performed better the hotter and drier it got. When others around it struggled,x , a hardy, herbaceous perennial, roughly 30cm x 50cm. It softened the straight lines of the path edges in the cottage gardens of the college grounds. Stubbornly determined to grow in what felt like a hostile situation for any plant, it rarely failed to impress me – in short, the genus got stuck in my psyche early on as a gardener.
