How to Grow Nepeta (Catmint) ‘Walker’s Low’ for Flower Farmers and Gardeners
Nepeta - also known more commonly by the name ‘catmint’ (not be confused with catnip, which we’ll get into later) is a great plant to grow. Every gardener should be growing it, every flower farmer should be growing it, and every landscaper should be using it.
It’s like the perfect plant - seriously. Let me tell you a little bit about nepeta’s many virtues!!
A wide hardiness zone - Hardy to Zone 3a to 8a, growing just superbly in hot, dry conditions as well as cool and moist conditions
Vigorous - Nepeta grows very quickly, growing from a cutting into a full-sized plant in just a year as well as continually putting on new growth and flowers all season long
Drought tolerant - One of the most bulletproof drought tolerant plants we grow, it does well even with very little ambient moisture or precipitation. Of course it does better with a bit of moisture, but it seems to make do with very little. Alternatively, it also grows very well in moist conditions so long as they don’t sit in waterlogged soil.
It’s a beautiful plant - Mint-green foliage with a silvery cast, long and elegant stems with delicately notched leaves that extend outwards into stems that are absolutely smothered with lavender-purple bell-shaped flowers.
Great growth habit - Nepeta forms these wonderful mounds of foliage - similar to lavender - that then sends the flowering spikes outward in a perfect sphere until it is covered in deep purple flowers. They can of course get a bit floppy if given a lot of fertilizer and moisture - but a bit of pruning and deadheading can help it get back into its lovely mound shape.
Pollinator magnet - Probably the most-beloved and visited plant in the garden by pollinators of all types. Honeybees, carpenter bees, bumblebees, hoverflies, butterflies, moths - they are always all over the nepeta!
A versatile and great flower material - A secret weapon for us as floral designers, nepeta makes for a great “base” foliage for centerpieces as well as adding lots of volume and heft in installations and aisle arrangements. It can also be used in bouquets, but just be careful to keep it in water (it will get floppy otherwise).
Nepeta Walker’s Low
Although there are multiple varieties of nepeta out there, we personally only grow the variety Nepeta faasenii ‘Walker’s Low’ - the gold standard when it comes to catmints. It’s our favorite (and the most popular variety) vigorous, sturdy, extremely winter-hardy, drought-tolerant, pollinator-attracting variety that is used in gardens and landscapes all over (and has untapped potential as a cut flower in my opinion).
Catmint vs. Catnip
Interestingly enough, catnip is actually a variety of catmint - Nepeta cataria - and as you might know from previous knowledge, catnip is quite the pleasurable experience for our feline friends due to the compound nepetalactone.
Common cat behavior when encountering nepeta includes drooling, sleepiness, anxiety, running around, and rolling around in it (although the effect wears off rather quickly - kind of like how we get used to even the most delicious of scents quickly).
Interestingly enough, the nepetalactone compound may have played an evolutionary role in achieving the attraction of cats to the plant due to its ability to repel mosquitos - rubbing up against the catnip may have offered protection against mosquitos in the wild.
Nepeta Quickview
Botanical Name: Nepeta spp. (Nepeta faasenii, N. mussinii)
Growth Cycle: Hardy Herbaceous Perennial (Z3-Z8)
Propagation: Cuttings
Size: 36” x 36”
Spacing: 36” in the garden, 24” for cut flowers
Light preference: Full Sun to Mostly Sunny
Water: Moderate to Low
How to Grow Nepeta
How to Propagate Nepeta from Cuttings
While some nepeta species such as Nepeta mussinii can be grown from seed, ‘Walker’s Low’ can only be propagated via cuttings since it is a sterile hybrid.
Luckily for us, ‘Walker’s Low’ propagates very easily via cuttings. In fact, it was the first perennial that I ever propagated via cuttings, because it roots really easily (although I still get that rush when I see those little white roots forming).
Not all plants root easily from cuttings, but there are a few common plants that are incredibly easy to root - a quick and easy way to multiply your plants!
Growing Out Nepeta
We usually plant out nepeta cuttings in either the spring or the late summer/fall. Once planted, they will start growing in pretty quickly - especially if given some good nutrition in the form of compost and plenty of water.
The great thing about nepeta is that you don’t have to do much to it - it’s a very rugged and durable plant and will do just fine in just about any situation. Main thing is to ensure that it has good drainage and doesn’t sit in soggy soil for long periods of time, especially in the winter since it can rot the roots of the plant.
I love growing ‘Walker’s Low’ because it is so extremely vigorous that it will grow from a cutting into a nice-sized plant by the end of one growing season!
When first starting out, you’ll want to ensure that you keep your small little cuttings well-weeded to allow them room to grow. Of course the nice thing is that after they grow in as full-fledged plants, they actually will smother any other weeds that try to sprout up in the area - they are self-mulching, which is great!
Harvesting and Designing with Nepeta
Nepeta can be used in three stages as three different types of floral material - foliage, airy filler (in budded form or dried form) and as filler flower (in bloom). Based on your need, you can harvest accordingly.
Harvesting Nepeta
Nepeta can be harvested as soon as the stems start getting “woody” - stiff and firm enough to support itself in the vase - which can be tested by performing the “wiggle test”. Grab the stem by the base and wiggle it back and forth - if the stem is floppy and waves back and forth, it’s not ready. If it is stiff and resists the movement, it’s firm enough to harvest.
One of the biggest issues we’ve found with harvesting nepeta is the tendency for the stems to get floppy if not hydrated properly.
To prevent floppy stems, it’s best to harvest it in the cool of the evening or early morning. Preferably when it’s been watered and is already fully hydrated, but make sure to get it into water right away so it doesn’t have the chance to flop.
Remove the lower leaves (I recommend around 50% of the foliage) and trim up any side shoots or flowers that you don’t want to design with.
As always when it comes to hydrating materials, you may want to use Quickdip (for a large volume of stems) or a hydration chamber (for smaller volume of stems) to ensure that they hydrate properly and doesn’t get floppy.
Once you’ve gotten your nepeta hydrated, you’ll be good to go - it has an amazing vase life, and even thought the individual flowers shed the overall lifespan of nepeta is a good seven days or more.
If you’re harvesting it as a dried material, you’ll want to wait until the flowers have bloomed and have died off - at that point you can harvest the nepeta and tie it and hang it upside down to dry (so it can hold its form).
Note that when you’re harvesting nepeta, you’ll want to cut down low to the base of the plant - this will encourage it to rebloom. In fact, if you live in an area with a longer growing season, you can keep cutting it back to the base and it will continue to bloom and regrow again and again - it’s truly a cut-and-come-again plant!
Deadheading Nepeta
Nepeta does best when it’s deadheaded after it blooms. This will keep it short and stocky and mounded and will encourage it to produce more flowers after the first initial flush.
If you’re growing ‘Walker’s Low’ the nice thing is that it is a sterile plant and will just shed its flowers. Sterile hybrid plants like ‘Walker’s Low’ are great when it comes to reblooming because they will keep blooming and blooming without any effort needed on your part.
On the other hand, if you’re growing nepeta as a flower farmer for using its foliage and flowers, you won’t have to necessarily worry about deadheading - you’re doing that by harvesting it already. And if you’re wanting to grow it for the dried flowers, I would recommend just letting it flower once and then let the flowers dry out before harvesting it and hanging it up to dry.
Dried Flower Varieties for Flower Farmers
Looking at last year, dried materials were our most popular and most profitable section of our sales from flower farming - it was incredible!
But what’s interesting too is that lots of the materials that go into dried material arrangements and products would literally have been composted otherwise. And while I’m all for improving the soil through composting of organic material, there are still plenty of ingredients that can be used for dried florals and bring in money during the off season.
Here are a variety of some of the dried flowers we grow for uses in arrangements, bouquets, wreaths and installations
Designing with nepeta
One of my favorite uses for nepeta is as a foliage. The silvery, delicate, almost scale-like leaves make for covering flower frogs and compote bowls very nicely, and it creates a much more elegant foil to flowers compared to something like ruscus or bupleurum.
In fact, I really love using it as a contrast to bigger, blousier flowers like roses and dahlias because its foliage and texture is so fine. It kind of reminds me of seeded eucalyptus or acacia ‘Knifeblade’ in the way that I use it - as a hazy silvery cloud upon which you can display other blooms against.
You can also use nepeta as a graceful, airy and textural element - when in bud or as a dried material it works well into airy and natural floral arrangements and bouquets.
Dried nepeta also works fabulous as a wreath material too - phenemonal form and also that lovely catmint scent makes for quite a wonderful display.
I hope I’ve convinced you to grow nepeta
Whether you’re growing it in your landscape or in the garden or as a flower farmer for use in floral design, I hope that you grow this sturdy, beautiful, vigorous perennial!
Are you growing nepeta in your garden? Let us know in the comments below!