lavender plant cats SylvesterBlue™ Catmint | Bigger Blooms, Zones 4-8

Long spires of lavender-blue blooms over crinkly sage-green foliage, all summer into fall. SylvesterBlue™ Catmint (Nepeta x faassenii 'G19213' PP32,974) from the Bloomin' Easy® breeding program delivers the large-flowered, densely branched habit that sets this catmint apart from older cultivars like Walker's Low or Cat's Pajamas. You get bigger blooms, more of them, for longer.

The two-tone lavender-blue flower spikes hold their color from late spring into frost, especially with one mid-season shearing. Butterflies, native bees, and hummingbirds work the blooms all season, while the aromatic foliage is deer and rabbit resistant. Crush a leaf as you walk past and the minty fragrance fills the air.

SylvesterBlue™ is a tidy, mounded grower: 12 to 15 inches tall and 24 to 30 inches wide at maturity, hardy through USDA zones 4 to 8. It's drought tolerant once established, unbothered by heat or poor soil, and the dense branching keeps it from flopping open in the middle the way older catmints sometimes do.

How to Use SylvesterBlue™ Catmint in the Landscape

The mounded habit makes this a natural border and edging perennial. Plant it along a path, where brushing past releases the fragrance, or use it to soften the front of a sunny rock garden. In mass plantings, space plants 20 to 24 inches apart for a continuous river of blue.

It's also one of the best catmints for container gardens, with enough structure to carry a pot on its own or spill gracefully over the edge of a mixed planter. Pair it with shrub roses, coneflowers, salvia, yarrow, or ornamental grasses, plants with similar full-sun, lean-soil preferences.

• Lavender-blue flower spikes from late spring through frost
• Crinkly, scalloped sage-green aromatic foliage
• Compact mounded habit, 12 to 15 inches tall by 24 to 30 inches wide
• Drought tolerant, heat tolerant, and deer resistant
• Magnet for pollinators, hummingbirds, and native bees
• Excellent in borders, containers, rock gardens, and mass plantings

Why SylvesterBlue™ Stands Out From Other Catmints

Older catmint cultivars can split open in the center by midsummer, especially in rich soil. Bloomin' Easy® selected SylvesterBlue™ for denser branching and larger flower spikes, so the mound stays full and the bloom show keeps going. If you've been growing other catmints and wishing for more structure and more color, this is the upgrade.

#ProPlantTips for Care

Give SylvesterBlue™ full sun and well-drained soil, and it will handle the rest. Water regularly through the first growing season to get roots established, then back off. Once settled in, this is a low-water perennial that prefers to dry out between drinks. Rich, heavily amended soil actually works against it. Lean, average ground produces the best flowering and the tightest habit.

Shear the whole plant back by about half after the first flush fades in early summer. It looks rough for a week, then comes back fuller with a second round of blooms that carries into fall. Cut stems back to a few inches above the ground in late fall after frost, or wait until early spring if you like leaving some winter interest.

• Full sun (6+ hours direct light daily)
• Well-drained soil, tolerates rocky, sandy, or lean ground
• Low to moderate water once established
• Shear by half mid-season for rebloom; cut back after frost
• Skip the fertilizer in most soils; too much nitrogen causes flopping

Order SylvesterBlue™ Catmint Today

Bigger blooms, denser habit, longer bloom window. SylvesterBlue™ Catmint is the catmint to plant when you want a sturdier, showier version of a perennial classic. Order container-grown plants from Nature Hills Nursery, America's largest online plant nursery, and plant with confidence. Every plant is backed by our Growing & Glowing Guarantee.