Catmint "Citriodora"

Catmint - Nepeta cataria var. citriodora.
Hardy Herbaceous Perennial. 
Flowers: Summer.
Height: 40-100 cm.
Position: Sun or Partial Shade.
Ideal For: Border, Edging. 
Germination: Easy.
Aftercare: Easy.
No cat should be deprived of this!
Their reaction to the aromatic silver-grey foliage is fascinating. Flower spikes of violet spotted white. 
Sowing Instructions.  Sow spring to autumn in good free draining seed compost, just covering the seed with compost. Germination usually takes 7-21 days at +16+20°C. The seed can also be sown in spring where it is to flower in a well raked moist seed bed. 
Growing Instructions: when the seedlings are large enough to handle transplant into 8 cm pots, grow cool and finally plant out 30 cm apart into a sunny spot in free draining soil. 
Aftercare Instructions: overwinter autumn sown plants in a well ventilated coldframe and plant out in spring.

How to grow it?
Catnip is placed in a separate area outside the crop rotation on fertile soils. The main thing is that the area is free of perennial rhizome weeds and that water does not stagnate on it.
In the fall, after harvesting the predecessor, the soil is loosened shallowly to provoke the germination of weeds. After two weeks, the soil is dug up to a spade blade - 18-25 cm, weeds are carefully removed, choosing the rhizomes of perennial species. On poor soils, 3-4 kg of humus or compost and 60-70 g of complex mineral fertilizers per 1 sq. m are added for digging.
In the spring, the soil is loosened a little finer than in the fall, carefully raked so that there are no lumps. On heavy soils, ridges are preliminarily formed.
Catnip seeds are sown in early spring and autumn. In spring, when the soil warms up to 120 at a depth of 10 cm, shallow furrows (0.5-1.0 cm) are made in the bed at a distance of 45-60 cm from each other. Seeds are placed in the furrows several at a time, 20-30 cm apart, or sown in a continuous strip with subsequent thinning. Sowing rate: 0.6-0.8 g per 1 m2. 1.0 g = 1600 seeds.
To obtain more uniform shoots, sand, peat crumbs or sifted humus are added to the seeds immediately before sowing in a ratio of 1:5.
When sowing in the fall, the seeds are laid out in pre-marked furrows after the onset of stable cold weather in late October - early November. The seeds are covered with timely prepared unfrozen soil or sand.


Catmint. Bot. syn.: Cataria vulgaris Moench.