I'm growing catnip for, you guessed it, cats and the bunch I have is continuously growing flowers. I've been chopping them off but it's never ending.
Is there a cause or will this just always happen?
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
Yes, it will always just happen. Nepeta is programmed to flower, and I'm not at all sure why you don't want the flowers - unless you're growing an annual variety, when it will flower and eventually die, most are perennial, and flowering is part of its natural cycle. Although most plants which flower can look a bit tatty after flowering, they recover and grow more foliage over time. I certainly didn't notice my cats disliking the flowers, but I never managed to keep plants for long - four cats fighting over them and rolling around in them consistently for hours on a daily basis meant they always gave up the unequal struggle and died.
Also from my reading, the flowers are very potent and is what is also used to dry to make the catnip filled toys. So trim it I guess, dry the flowers and make cat toys. I'm still waiting for mine to bloom. Hopefully another 6 inches and it will start.
Catnip can get a little out of hand if its not in a container. Is this the reason you're trimming off the flowers? Catnip will also produce rhizomes (underground roots that will grow into new plant). I personally enjoy having mine in a big half barrel planter. I found two per barrel to be reasonable, and I haven't ran into any outbreaks of catnip growing everywhere, and it's easy to take care of the rhizomes coming up.
Unfortunately there's really no method to stop them from flowering. I hope this helps you out some.
I have 3 large catnip bushes. The first year when I got the seedlings didn't flower at all. The following years it's flowered. I also wait until it flowers before cutting and tieing it up and hanging it in a paper bag to dry out. Each year I give little sandwich bags to my clients whom own cats, they love it.
Here's a photo of the type of planter and one of my barrels with catnip.
