Anise Hyssop
Agastache foeniculum


The picture above, was taken in early May. Anise looks much like catnip at this time, but you can tell it apart by the purply edges on its leaves and of course by its taste. :-) Although it is little known and seldom grown, anise-hyssop is good company for balm in both the garden and the teapot. This 3-4 foot tall easy plant, always surrounded by butterflies and honey bees when in flower, ought to have a place toward the back of a bed of tea herbs. Leaves scented of anise and mint - licorice-mint is another common name - clothe square stems topped with short but showy spires of bright lavender flowers. If hung upside down in an airy, shaded place, the flower spikes dry as easily as yarrow for a winter bouquet. Since the shrivelled leaves are not decorative, the can be stripped for tea. Anise-hyssop does not spread by runners as do plants of the genus Mentha. But spring sown seed grows usable anise-hyssop in a season; left to seed, it scatters a colony of young plants at its feet. Anise-hyssop is an ornamental that provides weeks of late-summer colour and months of fresh licorice-mint leaves for tea.