Nepeta kubanica, early June. "A handsome, rugged perennial catmint with an upright habit…taller, bolder and more dramatic than Nepeta subsessilis. Green, deeply veined and conspicuously serrated lance-shaped leaves hang off a columnar body, above which stand chunky spikes of violet-blue flowers, densely arranged in tightly packed whorls and held in dark calyxes. The flowers are typically hooded and lobed, and slightly speckled in the throat. Loved by bees…Origins: Moldova and the Caucasus." [Fergus Garrett, Great Dixter, Gardens Illustrated magazine, June 2013]