If there ’s a plant that goes well with everything , it’sVerbena bonariensis . And if you do n’t know what plant I ’m talk about , that ’s precisely the point .
Verbena bonariensis ( also known as majestic vervain or magniloquent verbena ) is the poster kid for underrated plants . The horticultural equivalent weight of a subtle understate accessory that makes the whole outfit piece of work , if you ’ll allow my analogy .
You ’ve probably seen it in metropolis gardens andcottage gardens ; in border along wall or in loose meadows ; in pollinator gardens and patio gardens . You get the substance . It ’s pop , yet it does n’t overshadow its companion plant .
Verbena bonariensis (purple), rudbeckia (yellow) and echinacea (pink) are the backbone of the cottage garden.
I ’m making it my mission to convince you to bring this plant into your garden too , if you have n’t already . I may not succeed on my first try , but I can guarantee one thing : you will start noticing it everywhere from now on .
Let’s clarify which plant we’re talking about first.
Confusingly , there are three plant that we ordinarily callverbenain English .
First , there is lemon verbena(Aloysia citriodora ) , the soothing herb that you will often see as a common element in tea portmanteau word .
second , there ’s vulgar verbena ( Verbena officinalis),a repeated herb aboriginal to Europe . It has very tiny mauve flowers on spike - like base . You ’ll most commonly find it in herb gardens , but seldom as an ornamental plant life because it ’s not very decorative .
Verbena bonariensis (purple), rudbeckia (yellow) and echinacea (pink) are the backbone of the cottage garden.
Then there ’s the purpletop vervain ( Verbena bonariensis ) , the marvellous plant ( with a slight stem and narrow leave ) that is topped by an electric - purpleness bunch of small flowers .
It ’s this latter vervain that I will talk about in this article . Here ’s what you should sleep with about it .
1. Verbena bonariensis can grow as an annual or as a perennial.
Verbena bonariensis is aboriginal to South America ( particularly Brazil and Argentina ) , but it has naturalized in some Southern parts of the United States .
So depending on what garden source of entropy you use , you ’ll either see it list as an annual or a perennial . It falls somewhere in between , so I retrieve it ’s more accurate to call it a cutter perennial . It will survive the wintertime in USDA zones 6 through 11 , but it will most likely grow as an annual anywhere else .
Even in colder zone , it may survive some year as the wintertime are getting warmer . As always in our gardens , it ’s also a matter of local microclimates . If you plant vervain along a wall that ruminate back heat and shields from harsh frigidness , it may storm you and reemerge even after a coarse winter .
This is the star of the show.
likewise , if you go for a thick layer of protective mulch in the fall , the chances of your tall verbena surviving through winter frosts get increasingly higher .
2. Verbena bonariensis is a low-maintenance plant.
Due to its bloodline , you may have guessed that verbena likes full Sunday . But do n’t let that put you off . In my observations , it ’s not one of those perennial that throws a tantrum if it does n’t get enough sun . Verbena will be felicitous to tick along in the scorcher of summertime or the chilly winds of fall .
It does n’t need exceedingly rich soil either , and if you ’ve seen it swaying in the wind in beachside garden , you ’ll know that it will endure all case of soil , as long as it ’s not too waterlogged .
In fact , during a particularly droughty summer a few yr ago , I notice that it was one of the few ornamental perennials in my garden that did n’t seem to show any star sign of stress . The other perennials that fare well wereRussian salvia ( Perovskia ) , lavender andblanket efflorescence ( Gaillardia ) .
The shielded location and the brick wall create a warmer microclimate for purple verbena.
Verbena does n’t need fertilizer . It ’s not on the fare for any garden menaces , such as bullet or deer . And it ’s not inconvenience oneself much by aphids or scale either .
Yes , tall vervain can now and then get mildew , in particular during blotto and cloudy summers , but since the leaves are so low and near , you probably wo n’t even notice it .
3. Verbena bonariensis is very versatile in garden design.
I sleep with most of us do n’t take ourselves garden designers , just simply gardeners . But there ’s no deny that there is an element of design theory when we choose where to embed something . And it ’s really easy to incorporate purple verbena in so many different garden scenarios .
First of all , because a sprinkle of Verbena bonariensis make a pleasant see - through result . Its lankiness adds height to the garden , with most cultivars growing between 24 inches ( 60 centimeter ) to 48 inches ( about 1.20 meter ) . But at the same clock time it does n’t create a wall of green that hinder other plants from view .
In narrow bed and borders , or along walls and fence , magniloquent and scrawny plants such as vervain make the fantasy of depth . The almost ultraviolet flowers have a beautiful glow against any eccentric of ground , whether it ’s a fond brick , cold livid wall or a Harlan Fisk Stone frontage .
Verbena growing back in March in my garden, even after a dry summer and a cold winter.
And let ’s not draw a blank about the social movement core , like ripple on a lake airfoil on a breezy day .
4. You’ll only need to buy tall verbena once.
Verbena bonariensis is a very dependable reseeder . Now depending on how and where you garden , that may be a positive or a damaging .
On the one hand , it ’s really well-off to get it started from seed . If you desire to have verbena flowers ready early in the time of year , you may sow the seeds indoors about a couple of month before you ’re ready to get them planted outside .
I found that it ’s a bit too much trouble for me to separate the seeds from the chaff at collection fourth dimension . In the pic below , you ’ll observe that the seeds are brown and the stubble is yellow-bellied - white-hot . But they ’re virtually the same size and weight . So I lay in them and plant them together .
In my temperate climate, verbena overwinters really well.
frankly , even this unconscious process you ’ll only call for to do once , when you first bring verbena into your garden . In the following old age , it will reseed on its own .
In my garden , I ’ve notice that the germ do n’t trip far from the verbena patch . So all it ’s doing is just getting a few more family members to join . And it is n’t one of those annoying source that survive in go in paving material or between the board of the deck of cards .
It’s a very polite reseeder, if you will.
I generally apprise our readers to admit the seed chief of perennials to winter in the garden . You may see some small birds that nosh on verbena seeds over the winter months . However , if you decide you have plenty of this plant in your garden , you could deadhead the flower once they ’re done bloom but before they ’ve had a fortune to dry out and disperse .
In my garden , Verbena bonariensis remain in salad days until late in the decline , so I ’m never in a rush to deadhead it .
There will be no more reseeding after that .
Combine Verbena bonariensis and grasses and you got yourself a colorful drought garden.
But to be honest , If I was garden in a colder zone , where tall verbena behaves more as an annual or a tender perennial , I would still allow it to reseed .
Just in case the rootage of the plant do n’t make it follow prolonged periods of difficult ( ground ) frost . The small seedling only amount out in spring since they need Togolese Republic through a geological period of cold stratification .
That ’s when you may assess whether last year ’s mature plant have survived . If they have , you could pull out the seedling , share them with other gardener or drop them in a little loose flora library .
Verbena bonariensis seeds I collected from three plants.
5. You can cut tall verbena back to restrict their height.
Many gardener , myself admit , plant Verbena bonariensis to lend height to the line of view in the garden . But after the first couple of years , if you retrieve that this flora towers over the garden a bit too much , there are a pair of fixes you could do .
First of all , you’re able to cut it back before it has flowered . If you cut back the primary flowering stem in mid - outflow , properly above a leafage client , the plants wo n’t get too leggy by late summertime .
And the bonus to this method is that , when they re-start their emergence , there will be new bud forming from the axil . So what would have been one flower head will now be replaced by two . So even if it does grow tall , it will look less sparse and more dense .
Verbena still had some florets open at the end of October last year.
Secondly , you may opt for compact cultivar .
Some vulgar vervain bonariensis cultivars that do n’t grow as tall are :
‘ Meteor Shower ’ – it attain about 20 column inch ( 50 centimetre ) at its full mature height ;
This is where I pruned down the old plant in the fall. It’s getting more dense from the crown.
‘ Lollipop ’ – another compact cultivar perfect for containers ;
‘ Little One ’ – it gain about 18 - 24 column inch ( 45 - 60 cm ) ; its blossom are a routine more pastel - pinko than purple .
6. Verbena are a food source for pollinators that feed on nectar.
In my notion , a pollinator garden is not unadulterated without adding some nectar - productive plant . And the excellent attribute of Verbena bonariensis is that it extends the nectar season direction into twilight . It blossom from mid - summer until the first frost , and you ’ll notice butterflies visit as late as November .
Butterflies love magniloquent verbena as do hummingbird war hawk - moths . To take your butterfly stroke garden to a whole new level , you caninterplant it with anise hyssop , lantana and coneflowers .
Don’t be surprised to see the stem is hollow when you cut it back. That is normal. The plant will regrow.
Shorter verbena in containers. It’s beautifully paired with pelargoniums, melampodium (yellow) and begonias.
