Clinopodium georgianum hybrid 'Desi Arnez'

'Desi Arnez' (Clinopodium georgianum hybrid) turned up as a chance seedling in the garden of Robert Mackintosh, a cross of uncertain parentage that Woodlanders judged worth keeping and worth introducing. The likeliest account is a quiet romance between Georgia savory (Clinopodium georgianum) and a neighboring false rosemary (Conradina), two southeastern natives that seldom bother to cross the line between their genera. Botanists who keep their Latin tidy now file the result under the bigeneric name ×Clinadina, which is roughly how the field admits it never saw the match coming.

The plant wears narrow, aromatic, evergreen leaves close along upright woody stems, greener and a shade broader than true Conradina, crushing to clean peppermint as you pass. The habit is improbably tidy for a foundling, holding a neat eighteen inches or so without being asked. In fall, soft pink flowers open the length of the stems.

They want fast-draining soil and a spot in sun to light shade. Like both parents they shrug off drought, but they forgive a wetter winter than most Conradina will sit through, which is part of why this one travels so easily from the sandhills into an ordinary garden bed.

Gail Barton of Flowerplace Plant Farm in Mississippi did the work of making him known. Her husband, Richard Lowery, did the work of making him memorable, naming the plant for Desi Arnaz, one half of the most magnetic and improbable partnership in American television. A seedling born of two genera could hardly have asked for a better namesake, even with the spelling quietly rearranged somewhere along the way.

Brush past them on the way to somewhere else and the whole border goes to mint. That, more than the flowers, is why this one keeps ending up planted beside the path.

Photo courtesy of Karl Gercens III

Learn more about the Clinopodium genus with our guide.