Agastache POQUITO® 'Butter Yellow'

Overview

Uses: Bed and walkway edging, small-space gardens, outdoor containers, rock gardens, pollinator gardens.

Benefits: The most compact hummingbird mint available, and it does not trade flower size for its short habit. Dense butter-yellow spikes sit on a plant barely a foot tall — a Classic City Award winner at the University of Georgia trial gardens, where the test is southeastern heat and humidity.

USDA Hardiness Zones: 5–10

Sun: Full sun

Life Cycle: Hardy Perennial

Growth Habit: Mounding, upright — low tight dome with short flower spikes

Bloom Color: Yellow with peach tips

Mature Height: 10–13 in.

Mature Width: 15 in.

Bloom Season: Early summer into early fall

Growth Rate: Fast

Summary

Agastache has always been a back-of-the-border plant. The Poquito series is the argument that it does not have to be.

'Butter Yellow' forms a low, tight dome around 10 to 13 inches tall and 15 across — small enough to edge a walkway or fill a modest container — and then produces flower spikes at nearly full scale for the genus. The florets are a soft butter yellow tipped with peach, dense along the spike rather than scattered, and they run from June through September.

Its performance record is unusual for a dwarf. At the University of Georgia trial gardens it took a Classic City Award against six other agastache cultivars, and the judges specifically noted that where most hyssops disappear into their surroundings on wispy stems, this one held its own visually despite being the shortest plant in the trial.

Foliage is fine-textured, aromatic, and stays green through the season. Hummingbirds and bees find it quickly; deer and rabbits do not.

Care

Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache Care

Full sun. The compact habit depends on it — in shade the plant stretches and loses the density that makes it worth growing.

Average to dry, well-drained soil. Lean ground is genuinely better here; fertile soil produces floppy growth on a plant whose whole appeal is being tidy. Sharp drainage through winter is the single most important condition.

Water regularly the first season, then only in real drought. It tolerates dry sites and extreme heat once rooted in.

Fertilizer is not recommended and is counterproductive in most soils. If the site is genuinely poor, a light spring application of slow release fertilizer is enough for the year.

Deadhead spent spikes through summer to keep the flush going, then leave some standing into winter — the seed heads feed songbirds and the stems shelter the crown. Cut back to the base in early spring.

Container growing: it is well suited to pots, which is much of the point of the series. Use a gritty free-draining mix, water when the top inch is dry, and avoid saucers that hold standing water. Plants hardy in the ground may require winter protection when grown in containers in colder zones.

Size

What Size is the Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache for Sale Online?

Our Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache ships in a greenhouse-grade grow pot and is appropriately sized for its container at the time of shipment. Plants may arrive with buds or blooms during the active growing season. If you have specific sizing or planting questions, please contact us.

How Large Does Poquito Butter Yellow Agastache Grow?

Expect a mature height of about 10–13 in. and a spread of roughly 15 in. in the garden. Growth rate is fast. If you have questions about spacing for your site, please contact us.

Additional Information

What are some common names for this plant?

Several are in regular use, listed from most to least common:

Dwarf hummingbird mint
Hyssop
Anise hyssop
Licorice mint

What is the difference between the Poquito and Kudos series?

Both are compact, but Poquito is the smaller of the two. Kudos varieties hold around 17 to 20 inches; Poquito runs closer to 10 to 13. If you want a hummingbird mint for a container, an edge, or a narrow bed, Poquito is the one built for it.

Does a dwarf agastache get smaller flowers too?

No, and that is the notable part. The inflorescences are large relative to the plant, which is why it stayed visible in trials against much taller cultivars. The dwarfing is in the habit, not the flower.

Is the foliage really edible?

Agastache leaves are aromatic and have a long history of use in teas. That said, we grow and sell this as an ornamental, not as a culinary crop, so it should not be treated as a food plant.

Will it come back reliably in Zone 5?

It is rated hardy to Zone 5, and cold itself is rarely the problem — winter wet is. In Zone 5 and 6, plant it somewhere with genuinely sharp drainage, ideally with a southern exposure, and leave the stems standing over winter. Under those conditions it returns dependably. It sits comfortably among our other Drought-Tolerant Plants.

Agastache POQUITO® 'Butter Yellow'

Agastache POQUITO® 'Butter Yellow'

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