Nepeta cataria: 20 seeds of catnip
Catnip belongs to the mint family, the same one as peppermint and sage, which you can read off its square stem and herby smell. Plants run from about 30 centimetres to a metre and usually throw up several stems at once. The leaves are heart-shaped to triangular with coarse teeth, two to nine centimetres long, and the fine hairs covering them give the plant its greyish-white cast, most of all underneath. Spikes of small flowers appear at the tips in summer, off-white to pink and dotted with purple-pink, and bees and bumblebees work them steadily. The species comes from southern and eastern Europe, the northern Middle East and Central Asia, and has naturalised in northern Europe, North America and New Zealand. Besides catnip you will see it sold as catmint, catnep and field balm.
What cats respond to is nepetalactone, a volatile compound found in the leaves and stems; its structure is often compared in the literature to the sedative constituent of valerian root. Not every cat joins in. Roughly two thirds of adult cats are reported to react, while the rest walk straight past. You do not need a cat to make the plant worth growing, mind: it flowers for weeks and pulls in a steady stream of insects.
Sowing
- Give the seeds five to seven days cold in the fridge. It is not strictly necessary, but it often gets germination moving.
- Sow in spring or in late summer, either in pots or straight into the ground, and cover the seed only very thinly.
- Keep the soil evenly moist at around 16 to 22 degrees Celsius; germination usually takes one to three weeks.
- Space the young plants about 40 to 50 centimetres apart, in sun or part shade on free-draining soil.
Catnip is hardy and self-seeds without any help. Cut back spent stems if you would rather it did not wander through the border. Where plants sit low and within reach, an enthusiastic cat can flatten them, so a cloche or a place at the back of the bed keeps young plants intact. These seeds are sold for cultivation and study, not for consumption; store them dry and out of reach of children.
More at Avalon Magic Plants
If you would rather not wait for something to grow, the dried herb sits loose on the herb shelf. The exotic seeds category also holds Hyoscyamus niger (henbane), Lactuca virosa (wild lettuce), Leonotis nepetifolia (klip dagga) and Leonurus cardiaca (motherwort). Every order leaves our warehouse discreetly packed.
