There are certain plants that gardeners will go back to time and time again to fill in those bare spots where other plants have been tried with no avail. 'Homestead Purple' Verbena is one of those plants for me. There is an area of my garden along a public sidewalk where I have tried many other perennials over the years, such as dianthus, sedums, tickseed and rose campion. However, I think the public sidewalk just sucks a ton of water out of the ground around it and it also radiates a good amount of heat in the summer. I can't get anything else to stick around for very long...except 'Homestead Purple' Verbena. It comes back every year along the sidewalk and so I continually add more and more of this faithfully strong variety. At some point you just have to give up trying the latest and greatest and just go with what works for you. Interestingly enough my next door neighbor had a patch growing for a few years, but theirs has long since died out.
This variety of verbena is a low, spreading type. It does well in dry, hot, full sun conditions. I clean it up every spring as it does have a lot of dead woody stems. This is not an invasive plant for me, but rather spreads slowly. If you live in Southeast Virginia and have a sunny location, this is a wonderful plant to own. It looks good around a mailbox, underplanted as a base plant for shrubs and in the front of a garden. A variety of butterflies also flock to it in the spring and summer.
I mentioned earlier this month that this Spring was much colder than previous years. The first full week of May is always teacher appreciation week at my kids' school. On Wednesday of that week each child is supposed to bring a flower in for their teacher. My peonies are always in full bloom during that week and so I usually send my kids into school with peonies for their teachers. This year my first peony bloomed this past Monday and most of them have not bloomed yet. We are about two weeks behind schedule!
The first peony opens!
These flowers look pretty don't they? Well, this is one of those perennials I wish I didn't have in my garden. This is Mexican Primrose. Yes, it looks good right now. However, in a week or two it will be done blooming and I will be left with very unsightly foliage/stems. It is an invasive spreader in my garden and I will be pulling it out of every corner all summer long.
Good comb: Japanese Iris, Catmint and Torch Lily (check out the cool buds to the right of the bird bath.)
Mexican Primrose, Japanese Iris and 'Homestead Purple' Verbena
Golden Showers Climbing Rose
There are certain plants that gardeners will go back to time and time again to fill in those bare spots where other plants have been tried with no avail. 'Homestead Purple' Verbena is one of those plants for me. There is an area of my garden along a public sidewalk where I have tried many other perennials over the years, such as dianthus, sedums, tickseed and rose campion. However, I think the public sidewalk just sucks a ton of water out of the ground around it and it also radiates a good amount of heat in the summer. I can't get anything else to stick around for very long...except 'Homestead Purple' Verbena. It comes back every year along the sidewalk and so I continually add more and more of this faithfully strong variety. At some point you just have to give up trying the latest and greatest and just go with what works for you. Interestingly enough my next door neighbor had a patch growing for a few years, but theirs has long since died out.
I mentioned earlier this month that this Spring was much colder than previous years. The first full week of May is always teacher appreciation week at my kids' school. On Wednesday of that week each child is supposed to bring a flower in for their teacher. My peonies are always in full bloom during that week and so I usually send my kids into school with peonies for their teachers. This year my first peony bloomed this past Monday and most of them have not bloomed yet. We are about two weeks behind schedule!
Good comb: Japanese Iris, Catmint and Torch Lily (check out the cool buds to the right of the bird bath.)
Mexican Primrose, Japanese Iris and 'Homestead Purple' Verbena
Golden Showers Climbing Rose
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