Verbena

Once extremely popular, verbenas have significantly dropped in popularity in the last two decades, and this is a terrible shame.  They are dependable, beautiful and produce flowers over a long period of time. Nearly all of them are very easy to grow from seed. They come in a wide range of colors, and some of them are scented. They are highly attractive to butterflies, some can be used as groundcovers or hanging basket plants, and many also make excellent cut flowers. Most grow quite fast and they also root very easily from cuttings, meaning if you have a favorite one, it’s easy to propagate more quite quickly. Young plants generally perform better than old plants, so propagating fresh stock regularly is a good idea.

Verbenas are easy to grow and propagate and they don’t require much to be happy. Annual verbenas want full sun and good drainage, and those in containers and hanging baskets should be fed regularly. It is also important that they be frequently deadheaded. In prolonged heavy rain and wet weather, the buds and flowers are prone to rot.

For hanging baskets and containers, we recommend the award winning cultivar ‘Imagination’, as well as any in the ‘Temari’,’Tapien’, or ‘Lanai’ series. Proven Winners has also introduced the ‘Superbena’ series, which makes an outstanding groundcover or spiller over a wall.

For beds and borders, ‘Peaches and Cream’ is a pretty blend of coral and salmon colours. We would also recommend both the ‘Quartz’ and ‘Tuscany’ series.