“Framed Verbena” – Summer 2013 – Hamnett Place Community Garden – Wilkinsburg, PA
“A Plant a Day till Spring” will highlight one plant a day, starting on the winter solstice (December 21, 2013)… And ending on the vernal equinox (March 20, 2014)… If all goes to plan I will be starting with old Snowdrop photos from 2013… And ending with new photos of Snowdrops in 2014…
So a few years ago a friend of mine handed me a plant… It was 4′ tall and bare-root… It had obviously been out of the ground for a while as it was rather desiccated… After a brief introduction… I threw it in a 5-gallon bucket full of fresh water for an hour… Cut the entire plant in half and threw it in the garden…
This is a good opportunity for me to talk about one of the most important aspects of gardening… Transportation and transplanting… When it comes to sharing transplants from your garden there are steps that can be taken to ensure the plant survives to grace another garden…
It is always best to dig the plants roots out in a single undisturbed ball of soil… But this is not always possible… The second best thing is to carefully remove the plant and some of the soil around it… I keep a bunch of cut-up white t-shirts to wrap the roots and loose soil in… I then soak it like a tea-bag… Transportation is relatively easy… If your only option is to go bare-root… Then it is imperative you keep the roots soaked… Again… The white t-shirts make a good temporary root surround…
The first year of growth is rather boring… A single 5′ tall plant… Very thin and sparsely leaved… I was told it was a voracious self-seeding plant… I personally like to control where these types of plants lay their seeds… So when the flowers are spent I pin the flower head to the ground using a ground-staple in the location I want next years plants to grow… This works like a charm…
Verbena is borderline invasive… It sets a massive amount of seeds… Growing it requires a little respect and a lot of observation… As summer comes to a close the flowers will begin to brown a bit… This is a sign the seeds are in production… What I recommend is a brutal pruning… Be meticulous… Each flower-cluster produces hundreds of seeds… If you want more to grow the following year… Leave a few select flowers… Just be aware that the seeds are extremely viable… They will grow almost anywhere… In any condition…
plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello
If you want some science – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbena
These “Plant a Day Till Spring” posts are simply intended to kill time until spring when I start writing more… My source (where applicable) is Wikipedia.org… The photography is all my own… And I am adding my own information…
This website and all of the information presented within is provided free by the author… Me… It is my sole opinion and is not representative of anyone other than myself… You can contact me directly with questions at – c.condello@hotmail.com
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chriscondello 
i love this plant
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