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Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds
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Dispatch by letter from €3.90.
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This plant carries a 6 months recovery warranty
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We guarantee the quality of our plants for a full growing cycle, and will replace at our expense any plant that fails to recover under normal climatic and planting conditions.
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The Calamintha nepeta, renamed Clinopodium nepeta, is a small aromatic perennial plant known as the lesser Calamint. It is used as a condiment and in herbal medicine for its digestive properties. Its small hairy leaves, rich in essential oils, have a powerful scent of mint and menthol. The light, nectariferous, and melliferous flowering occurs between summer and autumn. It resembles a beautiful mist of small white-pink flowers that turn more mauve towards the end of the season. In the garden, the lesser Calamint easily finds its place in rockeries and borders where it readily self-seeds. It is an excellent plant for dry and limestone soils, perfectly adapted to the Mediterranean zone.
Calamintha nepeta, the false nepeta calamint, belongs to the large family of Lamiaceae, like mints, marjorams, thymes, sages, and lavenders. It is a spontaneous botanical species in southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor. It is a rhizomatous plant with a dense stump. Its vegetation sometimes persists during winter in the South, but it disappears in colder regions. In spring, the lesser Calamint forms a neat little cushion. The thin square-sectioned stems elongate and then branch out, forming a beautiful clump about 40 cm (16in) in all directions. The leaves are very small, hairy, slightly toothed, dark greyish green, and remarkably aromatic: with the slightest touch, they exude a characteristic, very refreshing scent. Flowering begins in June-July and continues until October. It is not spectacular but is charming: the tiny flowers, borne on tall inflorescences, bloom for a long period. Their white-pink colour, quite pale at the beginning of the season, becomes more bluish-purple as temperatures drop towards autumn. Calamintha nepeta slowly colonises the soil through its rhizomes.
The lesser Calamint is a very common plant in dry Mediterranean gardens, where it tends to self-seed everywhere. However, it easily adapts further north if planted in well-drained soil, not too wet in winter. This aromatic plant is traditionally used dried, in small quantities, in many Corsican (under the name nepita) and Italian culinary specialties, and sometimes in infusions. Suited to arid situations, as well as poor, limestone, and rocky soils, it works wonders in rockeries, on slopes, along paths or borders, and between the paving stones of a stone step. It is an excellent complement to many flowers in the garden, especially red and fuchsia-pink shrubby salvias, Caryopteris, Perovskia, gauras, and asters preferring drier soil.
Calamintha nepeta - Lesser Calamint seeds in pictures
Flowering
Foliage
Plant habit
Botanical data
Sowing advice: the germination of the seeds can sometimes be long (between 1 and 4 weeks), and the germination rate of the seeds is irregular. If there is no germination after 4 weeks, place your seeds in the cold for 2 to 4 weeks (for example in the vegetable drawer of the refrigerator).
Sow from April to June directly in the open ground, in well-prepared and loosened soil, or from March in a tray or seedbed under heated shelter between 18 and 21 °C (64.4 and 69.8°F). In the open ground, keep only one plant every 50 cm (20in).
Sow the seeds on the surface of a good, light, moist, and well-drained soil. Cover with a thin layer of vermiculite or compost. Seal tightly in a transparent plastic bag at a temperature of 18 to 21 °C (64.4 to 69.8°F) until germination. Expose the seedlings to light, as this facilitates germination. A tray placed under the seedbeds will allow watering from below, which avoids disturbing the seeds.
Transplant the plants, when they are large enough to handle, into pots with a diameter of 7.5 cm (3in). Grow them in a cool place (around 15 °C (59°F)) for 10 to 15 days, before planting them outside in spring or autumn, spacing them 50 cm (20in) apart.
Cultivation advice:
Plant calamintha nepeta in the sun, in well-drained soil, even rocky or sandy, even limestone. It is a plant perfectly adapted to the long dry summers of Mediterranean regions, where it self-seeds abundantly. Its hardiness is rather good (-12 to -15 °C (10.4 to 5°F) at its lowest) in soils that do not retain too much moisture. Once well rooted, this perennial is remarkably robust. Planting in spring is preferred outside the Mediterranean region. In this region, however, it is best planted in September-October.
Sowing period
Intended location
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Hardiness is the lowest winter temperature a plant can endure without suffering serious damage or even dying. However, hardiness is affected by location (a sheltered area, such as a patio), protection (winter cover) and soil type (hardiness is improved by well-drained soil).
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The flowering period indicated on our website applies to countries and regions located in USDA zone 8 (France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, etc.)
It will vary according to where you live:
In temperate climates, pruning of spring-flowering shrubs (forsythia, spireas, etc.) should be done just after flowering.
Pruning of summer-flowering shrubs (Indian Lilac, Perovskia, etc.) can be done in winter or spring.
In cold regions as well as with frost-sensitive plants, avoid pruning too early when severe frosts may still occur.
The planting period indicated on our website applies to countries and regions located in USDA zone 8 (France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands).
It will vary according to where you live:
The harvesting period indicated on our website applies to countries and regions in USDA zone 8 (France, England, Ireland, the Netherlands).
In colder areas (Scandinavia, Poland, Austria...) fruit and vegetable harvests are likely to be delayed by 3-4 weeks.
In warmer areas (Italy, Spain, Greece, etc.), harvesting will probably take place earlier, depending on weather conditions.
The sowing periods indicated on our website apply to countries and regions within USDA Zone 8 (France, UK, Ireland, Netherlands).
In colder areas (Scandinavia, Poland, Austria...), delay any outdoor sowing by 3-4 weeks, or sow under glass.
In warmer climes (Italy, Spain, Greece, etc.), bring outdoor sowing forward by a few weeks.