Solved Can anyone identify this unusual plant....?

Dear Gardeners,
Last Saturday I visited Hidcote Manor garden in the Cotswolds. Aside from the breathtaking vistas I spotted this planting arrangement in a container. I'm interested in the upright plant at the back. It has some unusual features. At first glance it looks like a perennial, but the lower parts of the stems are woody. The leaves are a strange colour, somewhere between green, yellow and blue. Possibly the most distinctive feature is the leaf arrangement. They are neither opposite nor alternate but are arranged in whorls of three. They are lanceolate with serrated margins. This should help narrow the search down enormously, though a Google search hasn't turned up a match yet. I'd be grateful if someone recognises it and lets me know.

Thanks,

Andy.

 

Hello HGD It looks very like Lemon Verbena, Aloysia citrodora syn. Lippia citriodora. Did you notice any fragrance when you touched the plant?

 

Ha, I thought the same earlier but wasn't actually brave enough to post! It looks quite pale in the photo, is it a cultivar rather than the species, I wonder?

Nick

 

Sincere thanks to both Nikolaus and Noisette for replying. Strangely, I don't recall any fragrance when touching the plant, though perhaps I was too focused on trying to identify it. Its colour complemented the colours of the painted wooden building and the companion plants superbly, though the photograph doesn't do it justice. On closer examination, it appears that one of its companions is also a Verbena, the kind you see in hanging baskets (Verbena rigida?). Anyway, thanks again one and all.

Andy.