Catnip

Catnip is a must-have herb if you own cats—but it's also a genuinely useful herb with a long history of medicinal and culinary use. A member of the mint family, it produces small white flowers on tall, bushy stems and is extremely low-maintenance. Whether you're growing it for your cats, for its herbal properties, or simply as a hardy, pollinator-friendly perennial, catnip is an easy and rewarding addition to the herb garden.

SHIPPING INFO: Herbs primarily ship in May.

Why Grow Catnip?

😸 Your Cats Will Love You For It: Snap off a few leaves for your cats to play with fresh, or dry them to use in cat toys. Your cats will adore you.

🐝 Pollinator Friendly: The small white flower spikes are a favorite of bees, and catnip produces blooms for an extended period through summer.

💪 Tough and Low-Maintenance: Catnip is a hardy, drought-tolerant perennial that comes back year after year with very little attention.

Growing Information

🌱 Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial

🌱 Plant Height: 18–36 inches

🌱 Hardiness Zones: 3–9

🌱 When to Plant: Spring, after last frost

🌱 When to Harvest: Harvest leaves and stems as needed throughout the season; best just before flowering for peak potency

Cultivation Tips

• Soil: Well-draining soil of average fertility. Catnip isn't fussy and will grow in a wide range of soil conditions.
• Sunlight: Full sun to partial shade.
• Watering: Water regularly until established, then water sparingly. Like most mint-family herbs, catnip is quite drought-tolerant once settled in.
• Harvesting: Snip stems just above a leaf node to encourage bushy, full growth. For drying, harvest just before the flowers open and hang bundles upside down in a cool, airy spot. Dried catnip retains its potency well and makes great homemade cat toys.
• Cat protection: Fair warning—if you have cats, they may find your catnip plant and roll in it. Young plants are especially vulnerable. Consider covering new transplants with a wire cloche or garden netting until the plant is large and established enough to handle some feline attention.
• Spreading: Catnip spreads by both seed and runners. Deadheading spent flowers helps keep self-seeding in check.

Medicinal & Herbal Uses

Before catnip became famous in cat toys, it was a well-established medicinal herb in European folk medicine. Some of its traditional uses include:

• Relaxation and sleep: Catnip tea has long been used as a mild calming herb, traditionally drunk before bed to promote relaxation and restful sleep.
• Digestive support: Like many mint-family herbs, catnip has traditionally been used to ease digestive discomfort, bloating, and gas.
• Cold and fever support: Catnip tea was a traditional remedy for colds and fevers, often used to encourage sweating and help the body work through illness.

Our catnip is greenhouse-grown and arrives as an established plug in a 3" pot, ready to go straight into your garden or container.

Non-GMO Commitment: At The Farm on Central, all our plants are guaranteed non-GMO and not genetically modified in any way, upholding natural breeding methods and promoting sustainable gardening and farming practices.