PPA’s Perennial Plant of the Year

Ellen C. Wells

#FallIsForPlanting perennials, too. The Perennial Plant Association recently announced the recipient of its Perennial Plant of the Year program for 2021 and it’s Calamintha nepeta subsp. nepeta, also known as lesser calamint.

Lesser calamint has tiny white (sometimes tinged blue) flowers that PPA describes as “like a cloud of confetti” that bloom from early summer through fall. “Undemanding and dependable,” PPA calls it, while providing a most excellent foil for other summer flowers. It likes full sun, has a low mounding or bushy habit, and is durable and pest-free. Pollinators love it and the deer don’t, both two very good things.

Learn more about lesser calamint at perennialplant.org/page/2021PPOY. And if you’re a PPA member, you have access to a flyer, poster and bench cards to help you spread the word about calamint to your customers. GP