Nepeta cataria seeds (Catnip)

Description

A lovely long blooming fragrant annual for any garden.  Those with cats know of the wide range of effects it has on felines.  It makes a relaxing medicinal tea for humans, while it is a bounty for a wide variety of nectar and pollen seekers.  On warm days, the plants are alive with bees.  Will self seed, so there is very little care needed.  Considered a perennial, it is a short lived one rarely surviving more than 2 years, so we’re listing it as an annual.

Lovely compact multi-stemmed plants with gray-green slightly fuzzy foliage.  Flowers are produced on terminal tight clusters at stem tips and leaf nodes making a dense mounded form. Makes a good ground cover as well.  Needs sun and evenly moist soils.  Deer and bunny resistant.  Repels aphids and, some say, mosquito. Do not have catnip in pots by high places, such as balconies, if you have cats.  Cut stems when in mid bloom if harvesting for tea, but leave half for the bees.

• Seed Count: 300+
• Collection Date: Sept  2020
• Hardiness Zone: 3-9 (very short lived perennial)
• Height and Width: 60-90cm x 90cm
• Germination test type: hand sort
• Family: Lamiaceae

How to germinate Nepeta cataria seeds:

Sow thinly!  Start indoors 6 weeks prior to last frost to jump start the season or direct sow after threat of frost is past.  Prepare medium/growing surface, and thinly sow.  Mist seed into soil surface and use a plastic cover as seeds need light to germinate. Mist daily.  Germinates in 7-14 days at 20C.  Do not let medium or germinating seed dry out.  Mulch when planting out to retain soil moisture.