Catmint and Purring Pollinators
Floral Visitors II - Jill Poole
During a silly lunchtime conversation with my family, the lyrics of the 1970s song by Mud, The Cat Crept In, got turned into a questionable tongue twister - it goes like this:
“Christopher the crafty cat carefully crept in, crapped and crept out again."
I know, we’re a strange family, but it made us laugh!
This silly tongue twister reminded me of the summers gone by where a cat, let’s call it Christopher, would come and visit the garden late in the evenings and roll around momentarily, but blissfully, on the Catmint. Often feeling irked at this scene – that blooming cat’s on my garden again – it turns out that Christopher, despite squashing my Catmint into a catastrophically crumpled mess, was doing nature a big favour. Can you believe it? Cats are pollinators! So once Christopher had squished my Catmint, the pollen attached to his fur would be passed onto the other flowers that he brushed past on his way home, for a big bowl of Whiskas no doubt.
Cat in the Garden.
Photo by Edgar Cornejo on Unsplash
Catmint or Nepeta Faassenii is an herbaceous perennial closely related to Catnip. Although not as potent as Catnip, our furry friends still enjoy spending time around this pretty cottage garden plant. If you are going to grow it, you could cover young plants to protect them from pleasure seeking cats. Once flowering, Nepeta Faassenii is a perfect plant for pollinating insects, so sit back and watch the bees hone in on the the lovely trumpet-like, lilac flowers.
Not only is Catmint a highly appealing plant for cats and bees, it has a ton of benefits for us humans too. According to the website Spiceography.com Catmint is great for getting in your vitamins C, K and A, plus your iron, manganese and potassium.
Maybe you could pop some Catmint into a sunny hanging basket, especially if you don't want a “Christopher” rolling around in it. You could even harvest the leaves and make a soft-mint bedtime brew out of them.
It can be grown along with with Verbena, Agastache, Lavendar and Tuffted Hair Grass. Pop it in between veggies on the plot (if you have one) and it acts as a great bug repellent as well.
Voila, the family rambles do come in use for something!