Nepeta Mussinii - Catmint

A low tumbling mound of silver-grey aromatic foliage, 30 to 45cm high and spreading to 60 or 75cm, topped with soft lavender-blue spikes from May right through to September.

It is the easy lavender. You get the same silver-and-blue cottage effect, the same path-edge softening, the same enormous bee traffic, on a plant that establishes in one season from seed and grows in soils true lavender would refuse. Underplanted round roses it hides the bare leggy stems and looks as though it has always been there.

The one job it needs is a hard cut after the first flush. Shear it back by two thirds in late June or early July and you get a second wave of flower in August and September. Skip it and you have a tatty woody mound from August on.

The other thing to know is cats. It contains the same compound as catnip at a lower concentration, so some cats ignore it and some roll in it and flatten it. Young plants are vulnerable; a wire cloche over them for the first season sees them through, and established plants shrug it off.