Ornamental Oregano Is a Must for Container Gardeners
‘Kent Beauty’ is a good choice!
Ornamental oreganos are not grown for their flavor but instead for their unique flowers and trailing foliage. These plants are especially useful in window boxes and hanging baskets, which show off their cascading growth. One of our favorites to recommend for containers is the cultivar 'Kent Beauty'.
Botanical name: Origanum ‘Kent Beauty’
Flower: The actual flowers are small, but they're surrounded by large pink bracts that resemble pagodas. These remain interesting from summer through fall.
Foliage: Small, rounded, sliver-green leaves line trailing stems. The foliage is fragrant, though not as strongly as culinary oreganos.
Habit: Stems trail to one foot long.
Cultivation: Ornamental oreganos are easy to grow. This plant tolerates average soil but it prefers a gritty, sandy mix. It requires good drainage and tolerates heat and drought. Hardy in USDA Zones 6 through 9, it can be grown as a perennial there, but it will suffer in winter-wet soils. Therefore it is often treated as an annual even where hardy and composted at the end of the growing season.
Image credit: B.D.’s world/CC BY-SA 2.0
