Virginia ecotype
- Duration: Perennial
- Habit: Upright, tall, clumping, naturalizing
- Size: 3 – 6 ft. high / 1 – 3 ft. wide
- Flowering time: July, August, September
- Bloom color: Pale almost white purple to lavender
- Habitat: Moist prairies, woodland edges, open woods, thickets, stream banks, and shaded meadows
- Moisture: Medium to moist, well-drained
- Light: Full sun to part shade
- Soils: Prefers loamy or rich soils; tolerates sandy or slightly clayey soils
- Uses: Pollinator gardens, native meadows, open woodland gardens, rain gardens (with good drainage), ecological restoration, riparian buffers.
Agastache scrophulariifolia (Purple giant hyssop)
Agastache scrophulariifolia, or Purple Giant Hyssop, is one of the two Agastache native to Virginia, along with Agastache nepetoides, the Yellow Giant Hyssop.
Purple Giant Hyssop is a tall, mint-family perennial native to moist meadows, thickets, and woodland edges in Virginia (primarily the Appalachians) and throughout the eastern U.S. It grows in sites with part sun to full sun, medium to moist soils, and good drainage. It slowly forms clumping colonies over time, making it well suited for naturalizing in open habitats and restoration plantings.
Its tall spikes of pale purple to lavender (sometimes white) flowers bloom from midsummer into early fall. The spikes produce open flowers over a long period, rich in nectar and attractive to pollinators, including hummingbirds, bumblebees, small native bees, butterflies, and beneficial wasps. After it is finished flowering, the numerous small salt-grain sized seeds are favored by birds such as goldfinches, which pinch the seeds out of the flowerheads.
This species pairs well with other upright native perennials such as Mountain Mints (Pycnanthemum spp.), Silphiums (Silphium spp.), Tall coreopsis (Coreopsis tripteris), and woodland grasses such as Bottlebrush grass or other Elymus species.