PlantFiles: Big Betony
Stachys macrantha

It's hard to understand why more people don't grow this plant today. I gather it was a more popular selection 50 years ago. While it's not spectacular it is an attractive plant even when not in bloom. The flowers last a long time and will fit into many colour schemes without clashing and it seems to be very hardy. I'm growing mine on the west side of the barn against a white wall with a mix of dianthus, herbaceous potentillas, heliopsis and hollyhocks. I just wish I had bought a couple more plants when I found this one after several seasons of looking.

If you are looking for an upright plant for part shade, this it is. It has a long bloom time, which can be extended if deadheaded, and it stays in nice neat clumps. It does not lean toward the sun. While the flowers may not be spectacular, they will add color to that difficult spot.

This cultivar is a clump-forming perennial with whorls of violet-purple, two-lipped, tubular flowers bloom in upright spikes in late spring. Basal rosettes of wrinkled, heart-shaped, hairy, scallop-edged, medium green leaves (to 3.5" long) form an attractive mat of foliage. It more closely resembles some of the salvias (particularly when in flower) than the popular, fuzzy-leaved Stachys byzantina.