If you’re interested in attracting hordes of butterflies to your garden, as well as repelling really big pests like vampires or witches*, “vervain” is the plant for you!
We highly recommend a new variety from Blooms of Bressingham®, introduced to the US from England in 2011, Verbena ‘Seabrook’s Lavender’. This handsome hybrid is smothered with clusters of lavender flowers with a darker lavender eye. It’s extremely floriferous and long flowering, from June until late September. And it’s low growing and spreading habit makes it a unique accent for combination pots or as a show-stopping addition to the front of borders.
Happiest in full sun, ‘Seabrook’s Lavender’ is a tender perennial (USDA Hardiness Zones 8 to 10 and Heat Zone 12-1). It’s absolutely lovely grown or mixed with Verbena ‘Homestead Purple’. First year height is just 3” by 22”. The variety was discovered by UK gardening journalist and broadcaster Peter Seabrook in his Essex garden, where he has grown it for many years.
Verbena is easy to care for and can withstand drought conditions. It does require well-drained soil; don’t keep it too wet. Once the plant is established, it’s not fussy and will spread out to cover the space allotted for it.
Based upon outdoor trials in Zone 6, growers should plant unvernalized Verbena liners in April for finished flowering plants in 8 to 9 weeks. Shearing the plants two weeks after transplant will improve branching, and is required for larger containers.
For more information on this terrific Verbena, and more cultivars from Blooms of Bressingham®, contact Christine Kelleher at 1.800.232.9557, ext. 2552 or visit the Blooms website: http://www.bloomsofbressinghamplants.com
(*In the series of young adult novels “The Vampire Diaries,” author L. J. Smith uses vervain to protect humans from vampires, in an extension of vervain's fabled magic-suppression powers against witches. In “The Struggle,” Volume II, the vampire Stefan instructs the human Elena that vervain can "protect you against bewitchment, and it can keep your mind clear if someone is using Powers against you.”)
Source: Blooms of Bressingham c/o Aris Horticultural Services