GARDENER’S APPRENTICE #694
VERBENA
My plant palate has expanded to include verbena. This is a development that would make any number of my gardening friends laugh, since verbena is a tried and true, “grandmother’s garden” plant. In its latest hybrid incarnations, verbena flaunts its charms from the shelves of every plant retailer in America. However, I have successfully ignored it for many years. In my shortsighted way, I was only willing to give my affections to “lemon verbena,” or Aloysia triphylla, a South American native whose leaves have a wonderful, lemony fragrance. Lemon verbena is an excellent garden plant and a member of the Verbenaceae family, but bears little resemblance to the ornamental verbena species and varieties most commonly planted in gardens.
It took a Mother’s Day container garden adorned with verbena to change my mind. The abundant flowerheads of tubular blossoms are fragrant and I love fragrant plants. The deeply dissected leaves look almost like ferns. And, as if those charms aren’t enough, the plant drapes itself quite naturally over the sides of the container, creating the impression that someone had taken a great deal of trouble positioning the stalks. I don’t have any statistics to support the theory, but I would hazard a guess that verbena has grown in popularity along with the rise of container and window box gardening.
Verbena is part of the Verbenaceae family and is related to lantana, a colorful tropical plant, often used as an annual and grown in containers in cold winter climates. There are about 200 verbena species, though relatively few are cultivated for ornamental, and, occasionally medicinal use. The herb vervain, sometimes labeled as Verbena officinalis and sometimes as Verbena hastata, is an herb that was once used internally and externally for a variety of complaints. It also has associations with ancient Druidic rites and various forms of sorcery. Elizabethan herbalist John Gerard refers to this, but refuses to insult–or instruct–his readers with further descriptions of vervain’s alleged powers.
Tall garden verbenas are usually varieties of Verbena bonariensis, a purple-flowered, South American native that was introduced to England in 1726. It made its way to the colonies sometime after that and prospered in American gardens. The plant features lush rounded heads of small purple flowers, but should be grown in the back of the border, as it can soar to four feet tall in the course of a growing season. It is a tender perennial, hardy in USDA Zones 7-10. Those living north of Virginia should grow it as annual.
Another, unusual tall verbena is Verbena liliacena, introduced by the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden. The flowers are medium purple, similar to other verbenas, but the plant has a mounding, rather than a trailing habit. It tops out at about three feet tall and equally wide and should also be treated as an annual in cold winter climates. It is reputedly deer-proof and can stand a wide variety of soil conditions.
One of the best known hybrid verbenas is the Verbena canadensis hybrid, ‘Homestead Purple,’ which was discovered growing in an Athens, Georgia garden by two renowned University of Georgia professors, Alan Armitage and Michael Dirr. The garden’s owner, who had raised the plant for years, gave Armitage and Dirr cuttings, which were grown on and eventually introduced to the market. ‘Homestead Purple’ only grows eight inches tall, but the flowerheads are more lush than those of the bonariensis or liliacena species. The flower color is a vibrant lilac purple and the blossoms are intensely fragrant.
I especially love ‘White Lily,’ a hybrid verbena with an exceptionally sweet fragrance. If I were ever to create a Vita Sackville-West-style white garden, I would include lots of white verbena in the middle of the border. It grows between twelve and eighteen inches tall. with flowerheads of pure white. Even if you don’t have a white garden, it would look lovely with silvery-leaved plants and possibly a few of its pale purple-flowered brethren.
Most other verbena in the garden centers are marked with a trademarked variety or series name. These are hybrids that tend to be low-growing sprawlers in shades of white, pink, rose, purple, and less often yellow or orange. They are summer bloomers, in need of a sunny situation and well-drained soil. You can usually buy them in packs or flats, or, if you want to pay a bit more, in hanging baskets or ready made container arrangements. Verbena is generally inexpensive enough to use generously without worrying about the fact that the plants will die when the first frost comes.
Mail order suppliers are generally out of verbena for the year, but there are still plenty of plants left in many garden centers. After the Fourth of July you may even be able to get them at bargain prices, making the colorful summer bloomers seem even brighter.