Agastache (roughly translated means many spikes) is a genus of perennials from China, Korea, Japan and North America. Many of the North American species are pollinated by humming birds and our own New Holland Honey Eaters gorge on these all summer long in the dry garden. All told there are about twenty species.of Agastache. For our purposes they can be divided into two groups. All the species from East Asia and several North American species need regular summer irrigation to do well. The species which grow wild in more arid areas of the USA and Mexico flourish with very little extra watering. Agastache ‘Sweet Lili’, which was raised by us and is one of the best plants in our dry garden, needs only a very occasional watering as does A. aurantiaca. Agastache mexicana and A. ‘Blue Fortune’ needs more regular watering. I cut all of them to the ground in winter and dead head at the most twice during their long summer/autumn flowering season. They all make handsome spikes of flowers and hold themselves ramrod straight without any need for staking.