Texas Betony

Stachys coccinea

Characteristics

Culture

Texas Betony is a member of the mint family, as its distinctly square stems suggest. It has elongated red flowers and can grow one to three feet high, but it tends to sprawl. It is used as a border plant in both sunny and shady gardens. Texas betony has aromatic foliage and a tremendous bloom show. The heaviest blooms are in early spring, but Stachys coccinea continues to display vivid scarlet flowers throughout the season. Makes a good groundcover for shady places.

Noteworthy Characteristics

This native of Trans Pecos Texas and farther west does well in Hill Country gardens. Stachys coccinea requires little water after it is established, does not need fertilizer, has a long bloom period, and is deer resistant since the pungent odor of the leaves on the established plants apparently warded off any deer that came to browse. The stout, square stems of scarlet hedge-nettle or Texas betony rise to 3 ft. or more and are lined with pair of dark-green leaves becoming smaller up the stem. The inflorescence is an interrupted spike of two-lipped, bright-red, tubular flowers. A stout, erect, leafy plant, covered with soft hairs, with scarlet bilaterally symmetrical flowers in whorls at intervals in a spike at top of 4-sided stem.

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems. It is very well behaved in the garden.

Garden Uses

Native gardens, borders, containers, ground cover.