Betony ‘Hummelo’

* Common name: Betony ‘Hummelo’

* Botanical name: Stachys officinalis or Stachys monieri ‘Hummelo’

* What it is: Cousin to the better known lamb’s ears with their fuzzy gray leaves, this perennial has green leaves with salvia-like flower spikes of rosy-lavender from late spring through much of summer. It’s easy to grow, long-blooming, and deer don’t like it.

* Size: Leaf clusters grow 12 to 15 inches but flower spikes poke up to nearly 2 feet tall. Space 2 feet apart.

* Where to use: Ideal as a long-blooming choice in sunny borders, where it mixes well with most any color. Also a good choice on slopes, for lining driveways, and due to its colonizing habit, as a knee-high groundcover. Flowers best in full sun but also does fine in half-day light.

* Care: Keep damp the first season, then water usually not needed, except during hot and very dry spells. Scatter a balanced, organic granular fertilizer over the bed early each spring. Snip off flower spikes after bloom to neaten the plant and encourage continuing bloom. Shovel out sections that are creeping beyond where you want at any time. Cut to the ground after frost browns the foliage in fall or at the end of winter. Dig and divide sections in early spring if you want to speed up the expanding colony.

* Great partner: Looks especially nice with pink-blooming perennials, such as garden phlox, purple coneflowers and gaura. Pink shrub roses and ornamental grasses are other good partners.