I found this post in my “Drafts” folder dated August 30, 2015. It was meant to be published then. The flower is still in the garden over a month later. Even though the fields are brown and dry, deer have not eaten it.
* * * * *
It is exciting to me, as a gardener, when a plant I was sure died over the winter, shows up in bloom later in summer.
I am sure glad I did not mistake this emerging plant for an unwanted weed.
The teeny-tiny, one inch (2.5 cm) flower of verbena bonariensis, might be easy to miss, even though its stem is almost 3 feet (one meter) tall.
When this plant was purchased, I was sure it was a perennial. Not exactly.
It can return, but my winters are too cold (unless global warming keeps the mild winters around) for the plant to stay put.
It comes back by reseeding. Wind and birds determine just where it will show up. In fact, it can be invasive (that is a very nasty word for gardeners).
In my little corner of land, I am not concerned about it taking over, as it is barely surviving. I wouldn’t mind seeing a small patch of these cute purple blossoms in my flower bed.
Tag Archives: verbena
Verbena Bonariensis
While this photo was taken July 1 this year, this plant is flowering again. These flower stems are very long – about 3 feet tall (1 meter), yet the flower heads themselves are quite small. The one in the picture is 3 inches across, at most. And each flower head is really many teeny-tiny florets.
I’ve only seen this flower in a public planting here in the Northwest US, one time, and it was more sparse than lush. One reason might be that it grows as an annual here in Oregon, but can naturalize in tropical climes, as Hawaii. But then you have to watch out, because it has become invasive some places. I try not to plant anything that can become invasive in my area. We are doing battle with enough unwanted plants, for example Himalayan blackberries (planted to control erosion) and English hawthorn (brought by early settlers for fence rows).
susansflowers 