Verbena bonariensis , what is it ?

I can empathise with your frustration, @Tetters! .. omnipresent social networker ..

 

Off subject for a moment @Tetters. Is that a Lakeland Terrier in your pictures, post #10?

 

No, these were two of my rescues I took on before working with the Yorkie rescue...sold to unsuspecting people as pedigree yorkshire terriers. As they grew bigger their owners rejected them, and by the time I took them on they had loads of problems.
This is what happens with puppy farming - a practise that should be wiped out!!
I think there is certainly some yorkie in them - but I don`t care, they are my mates.

 

Ah, I remember now that you have Yorkies. Only seeing the back view in the picture, the colouring and build of your dog looked the same as a Lakeland I had.

I agree totally!

 

Well thanks all for the advice on VB , very useful @silu I think I will take cuttings early next month . I can then plant them out next spring to give myself a little clump of 5 plants. Seeing they are so prolific , to the point of being a pest but garden centres sell them at £5 a pop !

@alp It's OK the Wigan ice field has just receded a couple of years back Actually we get very mild winters in West Lancs . Now if you just move 20 mile east to the far side of Manchester winter is a different story due to the Pennines.

 

@HarryS Hard to call this one. Gardening centres price them high, but sometimes a perennial turns into a weed, as in the case of @Tetters.. So don't buy any more. Choose the hottest spot and they will give us babies, more than you can cope with. Take one plant indoors in winter for insurance .. Bob's your uncle!

 

Hi Harry, ( I don't if this is the case everywhere but it certainly is around here ), the ones you buy in a GG are usually named varieties/hybrids which too me aren't as good as the original species.

We went everywhere for a true V. Bonariensis and couldn't get one only the others so I ended up getting a packet of seed and growing my own.

 

KFF: would love to see your true V Bonariensis ... please!

 

Hope the cuttings take ok, I'm sure they will. You may be cursing me next season if you too get lots of seedlings but it's such an easy to accommodate plant being so slender and tall yet stands up to wind etc you'll be sure to find spots all over your garden for them. The 1st time I ever saw them was at a Scottish National Trust Castle and gardens. I was sitting having a coffee in the garden and a troop of gardeners/volunteers came past carrying loads of pots of the plant. I was intrigued and asked what the plant was. It was then that I learnt that it's such a great plant for herbaceous borders but a bit risky up here to leave out all winter so this manoeuvre was them bringing plants out of their massive greenhouse to plant out for the summer . I grow some of mine close to this which makes a wonderful contrast of colour (Cimicifuga Burnette)

 

Mine don't get much of a change to self seed as the Goldfinches and Siskins eat all the seeds.

 

Was going to hit 'Agree' but thought it might be misconstrued I'm not feeling so alone now in not really getting enthusiastic about bonariensis. I used to prefer Verbena venosa, a shorter, better behaved version, but that's become an invasive weed here, too.

 

Lucky you.....but the finches won't find all the seed.

I have a seedling in my garden this year that has very light, almost white flowers. I wonder how common this is as I haven't seen one before .

 

Lovely photo @shiney, it's often the unintended which seems to work better than planned planting in my case anyway...nature knows best and all that!

 

Hi @HarryS - I think you'll be fine in Wigan. Here in rural Nottinghamshire we get pretty cold conditions, and I have clay soil, yet v. bonariensis persists - it lasts a few years, but seeds at a modest rate so I just leave a few of them. Providing you recognise the seedlings and move them to where you want them, you should be OK.