When we moved in there was a tiny, low nepeta growing at the base of the aspens in back. It got no irrigation. It was just a stick or two with few blooms, but I watered it a bit and it perked up. It was lovely.
I dug it up and moved it to the kitchen courtyard, right in front where it could spill over the flagstones.
It never took.
For years now it has shriveled and looked awful and never bloomed. It's six inches across and leaves a blank space at the front of that small garden in all seasons.
There is an emitter right there. Is that the issue? Too much water? It looked so pretty in its original spot with no irrigation.
Now it has to come out.
The tiny shriveled one in the circle garden is coming out too and I'll replace it with other things. There is one other catmint that I had divided from the originals and it is next to a brown urn by the flagstone patio. Not visible, hasn't bloomed for years and remains nothing to look at.
Catmint is tough and easy to grow, so it's a mystery why mine don't.
But wait, Out of nowhere this summer a beautiful nepeta is growing in a pot of Kent's Beauty oregano that I wintered over in the garage. In fact it is taking over and crowding out the oregano.
It's in a shallow plastic pot that I place inside the urn. I have no idea how that nepeta got into the pot of oregano, but it is growing in a lovely way. Thriving. It must have come somehow from the nepeta division below the urn, which never bloomed and isn't doing much.
It's a mystery how it got there and why it thrives with all the watering I give the pot to keep the oregano from crisping in the sun. Apparently too much water wasn't the issue with my failed catmints.
It didn't bloom this spring as it seemed to be emerging slowly from nothing, but I do see a tentative flower or two now in mid summer.
Do I even dare plant it out in the ground somewhere? Would it decline like the others I transplanted? Should I let it take over the oregano and just be the accent plant in this urn?