Botanica Atlanta - Landscape Design, Construction & Maintenance

Every year the Perennial Plant Association chooses a plant of the year. The PPA membership -- which primarily consists of plant growers, horticultural educators, and garden designers -- cast their vote for the final choice from among four nominations. The candidates selected for the vote must be suitable for a wide range of climates, easy for gardeners to grow, easy for growers to propagate, and considered to be attractive throughout the gardening season.

And this year's winner is..

Nepeta racemosa 'Walker's Low'

Commonly known as Walker's Low Catmint.

Because of its many wonderful attributes, it will come as no surprise to landscape designers that this plant was chosen. It has beautiful lavender-blue flowers that appear on attractive grey-green foliage, it blooms continually from April to October if properly pruned (cut back by about 1/2 after the first weeks of blooms begin to fade), it is pest and disease free, drought tolerant, and attractive to butterflies and other pollinating insects. But it is also deer and rabbit resistant (and not tremendously appealing to cats, oddly enough). All of these attributes make it an ideal perennial even for novice gardeners.

The name is a bit deceptive, however, because this plant normally grows to about 30" and reaches at least an equal spread (it's named after a garden in England). And though it is classified as a full sun lover, it is somewhat intolerant of the heat in the deep South and will do best in metro Atlanta landscapes with some afternoon shade.

Best uses of Walker's Low Catmint include rock gardens, border fronts, herb gardens, as a ground cover on a small scale, and as a container plant. A good companion plant for early and late-blooming plants. Looks nice planted under roses and is sometimes substituted in place of lavender because of its better tolerance of adverse soil and water conditions.

Past Perennial Plant of the Year choices include:

2006 - Dianthus 'Firewitch'

2005 - Helleborus x hybridus

2004 - Japanese Painted Fern