Agastache aurantiaca ‘Apricot Sprite’ (giant Hyssop or Hummingbird Mint)

Beautiful summer-flowering perennial with aromatic foliage and a very generous amount of colourful flowers. They form loose mounds of simple oval leaves, slightly silvery and with a very trim pale edge to each of them. Handsome enough: but when the tall spikes of long-lasting tubular flowers come out these are really lovely plants. Their vibrant orange blooms look a bit like shoals of leaping goldfish (to me) and are a real punch of hot tropicana for a sunny border. Compact and rarely messy, it may straggle in semi-shade so give it the sun it craves. Fast-growing, ‘Apricot Sprite’ will quickly fill any gaps and spill into, onto and around whatever you put it near. We like them in big pots in warm corners in a courtyard, or mixed with grasses and spikes in a sun-baked Mediterranean border. Well-drained and fertile soil will keep them happiest. Hard to resist singing the name of this one out loud to the melody of ‘Agadoo - doo - doo’. There you go..it’s stuck now, hasn’t it?