Mimulus hybridus Maximus Mixed

Mimulus Maximus Mixed is a selection that produces flowers like you've never seen before! It's a giant variety in a wide range of colours. Cultivated as an annual, it makes an excellent ground cover plant whose unique flowering can be admired from June to September.

Mimulus is a short-lived perennial cultivated as an annual in our latitudes. It is also called mimule, monkey flower, or musk flower due to the musky smell of certain varieties. It belongs to the Phrymaceae family and is native to Mexico. This spreading and floriferous beauty measures 25cm (10in) in height and width.

Its foliage is dark green to grey-green and is ovate with slightly indented edges. The mimulus flower has five fused petals, enclosed in a long calyx forming a trumpet ending with two lips resembling a smiling mask and sticking out its tongue. Some people see the figure of a monkey in it, hence the name monkey flower. The Maximus Mixed collection of seeds offers giant flowers, which are on average four times larger than most mimulus flowers. They measure over 10cm (4in) in circumference and come in a wide range of colours: white, yellow, vibrant orange, burgundy red, and Bordeaux red, as well as bicolour and variegated varieties.

Mimulus appreciates light shade as well as moist to wet humus-rich soils. Avoid placing it in direct hot sunlight as it would not tolerate it. Give it a prominent place in border plantings alongside Mimulus luteus in an exotic garden, or on the edge of a pond where it will find all the moisture it needs. It is not very hardy and becomes fragile below -5°C (23°F). To keep it for several summers, plant it in pots where it can thrive and spend the winter in warmth.

Mimulus are known to absorb sodium chloride from the soil, storing and concentrating it in their leaves and stems, so much so that Native Americans used them as a salt substitute for their meals. The entire plant is edible and retains its salty taste even when cooked. The foliage was also used as a poultice to soothe the pain of minor burns.