Giant Blue Hyssop

Agastache foeniculum

Giant Blue Hyssop is native Agastache at its most impressive. a four to five foot column of fragrant, purple-blue flower spikes that bloom from midsummer through September and draw more bees per square foot than almost anything else in the summer garden. Rub a leaf and you get a clean, anise-mint scent that hangs in the air. The flowers are a true purple-blue, stacked in dense whorls along upright stems, and the show continues for months as each spike opens progressively from base to tip. This is a plant that earns its space through sheer ecological performance. Native bees. especially bumblebees and smaller specialist bees. work the flowers from morning to dusk. Hummingbirds and clearwing moths join the rotation. In late summer when other nectar sources dry up, Giant Blue Hyssop becomes the anchor of the pollinator garden. It self-sows modestly in open spots but isn't weedy, and the seedlings are easy to manage or transplant.