Downy Wood Mint | Blephilia ciliata

🌿 Ships well rooted in a 3.5 x 5 inch deep pot. Well established root system and ready to plant! 

Everything you love about bee balm and agastache — the mint family fragrance, the pollinator action, the stacked whorled flower clusters — in a compact, well-behaved package that won't take over the garden. Downy wood mint tops out at 12–18 inches with stout, square stems carrying dense, globe-shaped clusters of lavender-pink flowers arranged in pagoda-like whorls up the stem. It blooms for about a month in late spring to early summer, drawing native bees, bumblebees, and butterflies in numbers that make it easy to underestimate until you're standing next to it at peak bloom. Unlike true mints and even some monardas, it spreads slowly and politely by rhizome from a central taproot — a clump-former, not a colonizer. The square-stemmed foliage is faintly aromatic when crushed, basal leaves stay green through winter, and the spherical seedheads that follow the flowers are ornamental in their own right through the cold months. Thrives in dry to average, well-drained soil, tolerates lean and rocky ground, and handles drought without complaint. Deer and rabbit resistant. Essentially trouble-free.

🌿 Latin Name: Blephilia ciliata
🌞 Light: Full sun to part shade; good air circulation helps prevent powdery mildew
🌱 Soil: Well-drained, dry to average; tolerates lean, rocky, and sandy soils; no wet feet
💧 Water: Drought-tolerant once established; prefers drier conditions
📏 Mature Size: 12–18 inches tall; slow-spreading clump
🌸 Bloom Time: Late spring through early summer (May–July); approximately 4 weeks
🗺️ Hardiness Zone: 4–8
🦋 Wildlife Value: Attracts native bees, bumblebees, and butterflies; deer and rabbit resistant; ornamental seedheads feed birds through winter
🏆 Standout Qualities: Non-aggressive mint family member; compact and border-friendly; winter-green basal foliage; black walnut tolerant