I picked this up at a local garden center yesterday and was going to add it to the PlantFiles. Has anyone seen this one yet? I'm not sure if it's a mexicana or aurantiaca or a hybrid. The colors of the flowers are similar to 'Acapulco Salmon and Pink' or 'Just Peachy'.
Agastache 'Garden Party Pink'
I googled and couldn't find any references at all to an Agastache cultivar by that name. Are you sure the nursery had it labelled correctly? Or maybe it's a trademark name rather than a cultivar name (although even in that case something should have showed up on the google search)
I sometimes think these places have lost the original name and just pick a 'new' one. I've gotten quite a few things labeled what they aren't.
I'm going to take one tomorrow when the light's better. I tried today, but the wind was blowing so hard the plant wouldn't stand still. Whatever it is, it sure smells good. I was at a new shopping center yesterday (after the trips to the nursery) and some of their planters have Agastache. I couldn't resist brushing my hand through them as I walked by. All of the fancy boutique shops are drenched with perfume, but I would rather smell the flowers outside. Does anyone make Agastache perfume?
Please be aware that some nurseries assign their own marketing names as varieties for plants of unknown provenance. This is a big problem for Agastaches, because seed-grown plants will show lots of variation. They cross like crazy, and even monocultures of plants grown for seed will provide different forms if their breeding history is complex.
This is why Ginny Hunt sells hers as mixtures. Her plants came from Betsy Clebsch, who planted the F1 hybrids I sent her and let them evolve. On a visit to her home off Skyline Drive, I suggested she call Ginny in to collect seed, since many were quite stunning.
With most of these forms, it is impossible to guess the exact parentage for this reason. All of my releases are F1 hybrids, and as long as they are propagated vegetatively, the names should remain associated with them. They include:
`Tutti Frutti' Mexican Anise Hyssop
Agastache barberi x mexicana `Toronjil Morado' - hand pollinated
`Apricot Sunrise' Anise Hyssop
Agastache coccinea x aurantiaca `Apricot Sunrise' - greenhouse foundling
`Pink Panther' Giant Anise Hyssop
Agastache coccinea x mexicana `Toronjil Morado' - hand pollinated
`Firebird' Giant Anise Hyssop
Agastache coccinea x rupestris `Firebird' - greenhouse foundling
`Pink Lemonade' Lemon Hyssop
Agastache mexicana x barberi - hand pollinated
Agastache pallida var. pallida is the correct name for A. barberi
Most of my starting species were leftover seeds from Roger Sanders, who collected hem as part of his thesis work on Agastache section Brittonastrum
I expect to have a lot of crosses from my agastaches and salvias and at some point I will be marketing both. I will label them as 'seedling of'...any better way I can handle that, Rich?
Here are some photos. Some of the flowers are pink and others are salmon colored.
wcgypsy, the nexus of your question is one of the reasons I am always commenting on the need for having an accurate provenance of the parent plants. Check the source of the plants for the rigor of their efforts at keeping names straight. I would not rely on seed collected on trade forums for identity. As I said before, agastaches cross like crazy. This applies to Salvia greggii and microphylla forms, S. mexicana, and a few others as well.
One of my chores when visiting nurseries is to keep the names straight (especially for my introductions), but I can't be everywhere.
Seeds of plants from an open-pollinated garden can come true, but authenticity depends on differences in pollinator and flower morphology, and times of bloom.
A seedling of Salvia microphylla `Hot Lips' would be Salvia microphylla x `Hot Lips'
Depending on who you're selling the plants to though, they might see Salvia microphylla x 'Hot Lips' and think that means it's the actual 'Hot Lips', so it might not be a bad idea to also include a note explaining what that nomenclature means.
The designation probably should be Salvia microphylla ex `Hot Lips', as in ex meaning `from' in Liatin, as opposed to "x" meaning cross. However, even this might be confusing.
I think I'll make sure to label as 'seedling from' so that down the road it's not carrying forward a misnomer.