Description Family Lamiaceae Originating from America. Upright herbaceous stems and bright green oval, pointed leaves form slowly spreading clumps. Elegantly structured bright scarlet flowers are borne over a long season through summer into autumn. Easy to grow in all but heavy, wet soils in full sun or light shade. A tall stately perennial with strong upright stems that rarely need support, this Bergamot variety is a strong and reliable grower with some resistance to mildew. It shoots in spring, quickly forming robust stems with sharply pointed oval leaves. They are highly aromatic, with a minty aroma, and have been used for healing purposes, even as a companion crop for productive plants like tomatoes, acting as a biological control by repelling some pests and attracting pollinators and predators. The elegant rich burgundy/scarlet flowers have an upright, detailed structure, appearing from summer and into autumn. The petals have a tufted appearance atop a thistle like ring of calyces, above a basal ring of dusky purple maroon bracts, making an elegant bloom, attractive to all pollinators. The detailed flowers and aromatic foliage are exceptional amongst prairie and traditional English plants, worthy of planting where it can be appreciated close up. When planted in groups, or drifts the mass of colour offered by this variety can make wild combinations with Echinacea ‘Magnus Superior’ or Rudbeckia ‘Cherokee Sunset’ or Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Firetail’ in prairie-style compositions, but its adaptability to other styles means it can contribute to different planting schemes too. In exotic gardens it can make a blast of colour set amongst the foliage of Enste ventricosum ‘Maurelii’, Phormium ‘Black Velvet’ or Miscanthus giganteus, or flamboyantly alongside the flowers of Canna ‘Roi Humbert’, ‘Canna Taney’ and Canna ‘Russian Red’. In Mediterranean gardens, its aromatic foliage adds to the spicy aromas of Myrtles communis, ‘Tarentina’, and ‘Microphylla’ and Choisya ‘Greenfingers’, and the flowers contrast spectacularly with the silver foliage of Yucca baccata, Yucca rostrata and Yucca filamnetosa. Easy to grow in all but very wet soil in full sun or part shade. Height and spread after 2 – 3 years 90cm x 50cm.
