Does any one grow verbascum?

25 Jul '07 12:09 am

Verbascums are old established favourites of cottage gardens and herbaceous borders. They are good reliable plants in my experience, I love their tightly-whorled flowers that appear to burst through the border.

Just a few things you need to be aware of.

They are hungry plants. After all, they do a tremendous amount of growing in a short time, so to look their best consistently they need nutritious ground. Plant them deep to anchor them well. Best to plant them with a stout cane so you know where they are and it's handy if your forecast advises of high winds. Hold them firm for the duration and release afterwards when the danger is over.

25 Jul '07 4:28 am

for the info, the garden catalogs just sing their praises without any practical advice on their care. Making them sound like a plant that will grow as a weed, without any care at all.

25 Jul '07 7:31 am

It's funny you say that about Verbascum's growing like weeds since the only time I have had success with one was when a "wild" one planted itself in one of my gardens. I have tried planting cultivated ones several times here in my Alabama garden with no success. I think my mixed perenniel border stays too wet in winter. They seem to prefer good drainage. I am tempted to try some in my new rose berms where the soil is rather sharp. I do love the look of them. Good luck with your efforts and please be sure to let us know how they perform.

25 Jul '07 8:52 am

One small problem I have (and mine are weedy, growing on a slope) is that after flowering the root systems are rock solid, and if I want to remove the roots I have a minor erosion problem!

25 Jul '07 10:09 am

Moosey, does that mean it has a big, tuberous root that's tough to get out? It wouldn't surprise me, often the ones they brag about being draught tolerant either have an enormous tap root or succulent feature.

25 Jul '07 5:15 pm

I have one long-suffering Verbascum in my garden. It returns faithfully year after year with purple flowers. I'm sure it doesn't get enough sunshine, as it is always pretty lax and tends to be a "lay-about". It gets only about 2 feet tall. I'd move it, but I've always heard that verbascums hate that and I don't want to kill the poor thing! The wild ones grow into towers around here, but they have fuzzy leaves (unlike mine) and yellow flowers. None have ever ventured into my garden, he-he Smile

!

-gordonf

25 Jul '07 7:26 pm

People when I read the posts on this gorgeous plant I can see some of you suffering from the same old problem . . . . .

'Gordonf' your verbascum problem is typical of someone planting a herbaceous plant and leaving it. Where gardeners do this and it happens a lot, herbasceous plants will look increasingly tired and bereft after the fourth year. But there is a simple cure for this. Dig it up!
Divide it!
Replant it!
If you don't want any more, swop them, give them away or compost them. Here's an example. Last autumn I dug up one helianthus, made eight plants from it, now all eight are six feet tall, they are thinner plantings individually, but the number of flowers has been completely rejuvenated. This autumn I will cull them down to four and next summer they will look better than ever. The following year I will cull them to two plants, and by the fourth year I'm back to one and then I repeat.

Yes faith, it does sound like your border is too wet in winter. In which case, you will need to incorporate more stone or relocate your the soggy plants to a drier area of your garden. In the case of the former, when I added additional stone to key points of my borders in order to grow Foxtail lily varieties (Eremurus), I also raised the border in the immediate area by about four inches. Doesn't sound much, but a soggy root does appear to appreciate the difference, and it makes little difference to the height of the plants in summer.

26 Jul '07 1:35 am

Thanks for the suggestions muddywellies, as I mentioned, I have already decided to try Verbascums on my new rose berms, since they are mounded about three feet above grade. I think verbascums growing on the back side (away from the house) might look good when their tall bloom spikes rise up behind the other plantings. Of course, the rose berms have given me an opportunity to grow so many more plants that I am afraid they will quickly become crowded with everything else besides roses.

p.s. I love your website and have enjoyed reading some of the Moosey's forum members articles in your new forum site.

26 Jul '07 3:56 pm

Thanks for the tip, muddywellies! I guess I'll just have to overcome my fear of moving it and dig it up! Very Happy

I think it really should get more sunshine, so it should do some good!

Cheers!

gordonf

26 Jul '07 6:31 pm

Thanks, I am going to try them. When I googled it I found out it has a long taproot and therefore is hard to transplant? Not sure if I understood that correctly, but it does say tho the cultivar is a short lived perennial, it will naturalize.

Does any one grow verbascum?

Thanks

Verbascum

Verbascum's roots

Verbascum

V erbascum

Verbascums

alot of good information