Catmint (Nepeta) is a hardy, long-blooming perennial that attracts hummingbirds with its tubular lavender-blue flowers.
This easy-care plant is a must-have for any hummingbird garden. With its long flowering period and drought tolerance once established, catmint provides consistent color and sustenance that keeps hummingbirds coming back all season.
What Is Catmint?
Catmint, or Nepeta, is a genus of perennial plants in the mint family. Native to Europe, Africa and Asia, there are over 250 species of catmint. Most form clumps of aromatic gray-green foliage topped with spikes of lavender-blue, pink, or white flowers. The tubular blooms appear from late spring through fall, providing months of color.
Catmint is low-maintenance and drought-tolerant once established. It grows 1-4 ft tall and wide depending on the variety. The newer hybrids tend to be more compact and floriferous. Catmint makes an excellent addition to sunny borders, rock gardens, and containers.
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Benefits of Catmint for Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds can’t resist the catmint’s tubular, nectar-rich flowers. The lavender-blue blossoms are the perfect size and shape for their long bills. Catmint provides a reliable food source for hummingbirds from late spring into fall with its extended bloom time.
The bright color of the flowers acts as a beacon, drawing hummingbirds to your garden. Catmint complements other hummingbird favorites like salvia, bee balm and penstemon. As a bonus, catmint is deer and rabbit resistant, so the flowers remain available for the hummingbirds to enjoy.
How to Grow Catmint
Growing catmint is easy if you provide the conditions this plant loves:
- Plant in full sun. Catmint tolerates some light shade but blooms best in full sun.
- Provide well-draining soil. Catmint grows in a range of soil types but doesn’t like wet feet. Amend heavy clay soil with compost.
- Space plants 1-3 ft apart depending on the mature size of the variety.
- Cut back plants by half after the initial late spring bloom to encourage compact growth and rebloom.
- Leave the foliage standing over winter and cut back to a few inches above ground in early spring.
- Propagate catmint by division in spring or take stem cuttings in summer.
- Fertilize lightly, if at all. Too much fertilizer leads to floppy growth.
Top Catmint Varieties for Hummingbirds
With so many catmints to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are some top varieties that hummingbirds love:
- Six Hills Giant – Robust 3-4 ft plant with long spikes of lavender-blue flowers
- Walker’s Low – 2-3 ft mound covered in violet-blue flowers, blooms for months
- Junior Walker – Compact 1.5 ft version of Walker’s Low
- Purrsian Blue – Large deep-blue flowers on a tidy 1-2 ft plant
- Blue Fortune – Upright 2-3 ft variety with lavender-blue flower spikes
Companion Plants for a Hummingbird Garden
Pair catmint with other pollinator favorites to keep the hummingbirds well-fed all season. Good companions include:
- Salvia
- Bee balm
- Penstemon
- Honeysuckle
- Columbine
Use catmint as an informal border along paths or as a groundcover under taller perennials and shrubs. Interplant it with later-blooming perennials to provide a continuous nectar supply for hummingbirds.
You can even tuck catmint among your vegetables to attract beneficial pollinators.
Why Every Hummingbird Garden Needs Catmint
If you want to attract hummingbirds to your yard, catmint is a must-have perennial. This easy-care plant provides a bounty of lavender-blue blooms that hummingbirds can’t resist.
By planting catmint and other nectar-rich flowers, you’ll create an enticing hummingbird habitat right outside your door. So add some catmint to your garden this year and enjoy the aerial antics of these delightful little birds all season long!
Nancy has been a plant person from an early age. That interest blossomed into a bachelor’s in biology from Elmira College and a master’s degree in horticulture and communications from the University of Kentucky. Nancy worked in plant taxonomy at the University of Florida and the L. H. Bailey Hortorium at Cornell University, and wrote and edited gardening books at Rodale Press in Emmaus, PA. Her interests are plant identification, gardening, hiking, and reading.