Monardella subglabra

Monardella subglabra, Butterfly Mint Bush, is a one foot tall perennial covered with one inch purple flowers in Jun-Jul. Butterfly Mint bush has a mint odor but much less than many others. Native to the Central Coast to So. Calif.. It likes part shade to sun. It will tolerate reg. garden water but becomes drought tolerant with age. It is cold tolerant to at least 10 deg.. I've seen this at the Santa Barbara Bot. Garden form a mass of bright purple with no foliage showing. It is not as showy in the nursery but still pretty and needs so little care we'd forgotten we'd planted it. It was covering an 3\' area of a flower bed with dark green foliage on a plant 2" tall. We remembered it was there when we finally got a little rainfall and it flowered. Ta! Da! Purple flowers all over the place! Our mother plant is 15 years old and still thriving. Syn. Monardella purpurea