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Perennial Verbena 'Homestead Purple" problems12 Apr '05 3:11 am
Many of my plants are looking sickly, i.e., very little new growth. I live in Zone 7 in Middle Tennessee. These plants do grow as perennials here. Last year they were beautiful. Help! Any suggestions as to what might have happened, how to correct it, or where to bury them? |
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Bex
website manager
Camberwell, London
Poorly plant19 Apr '05 7:29 am
Hi DigginJ, and welcome to the forum!
I'm sorry to hear your verbena is not having it's best year. I'm too much of a newbie to the garden to help, but I hope someone has some advice.
Do you have a picture of the plant we could see?
Good luck! |
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moosey
head gardener
19 Apr '05 9:11 am
I think that's the perennial verbena that I grow - it should have bright green shiny leaves to go with the beautiful flowers. Can you take cuttings? (or is it the wrong growing season... not sure). They may be humidity-prone, and if so I guess you burn them - fungal spores seem to lead charmed lives, and turn up again and again!
Where I garden we have a very dry (humidity-free) atmosphere in all seasons, and as a consequence we don't have huge troubles with fungal diseases, or mosquitos, etc.
By the way, sorry to 'rub it in' by mentioning the bright green shiny leaves! How tactless! Oops!
Good luck and happy gardening |
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Perennial Verbena "homestead purple"21 Apr '05 8:35 am
Some of my local gardening friends tell me now that the plants get "leggy" after a few years - they advised trimming out the dead stuff -- or removing the plants entirely! I have cut out all the dead stuff, fertilized them and am hoping most will continue to bloom. I think I can just stick a piece in the ground - they root from nodes on the stems - and pray!! I did have 2 that were complete dead - they are history. Apparently this verbena is just barely a perennial in this zone - about 6.5 - and annual north of us so we are simply lucky when it returns. As to humidity, we have some - not as much as Florida. It is also possible that my irrigation system was not functioning perfectly last summer - perhaps that lead to their demise. By the way, this plant is not supposed to have shiny leaves.
Thanks for all your help. I'll keep you posted during the summer. |
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moosey
head gardener
22 Apr '05 8:25 am
It's that word 'perennial' isn't it! There are degrees of 'perennial-ness' that the marketers of plants don't quite tell us! Like where I live there is enough difference in weather conditions etc. for gardening friends who live half an hour away to have completely different plants wintering over in their gardens.
Even in my own garden some annual Lobelia seemed to perennialise itself one year. Confusing!
Happy gardening.
My verbena has - well - bright bottle green leaves rather than super-shiny? Oops! I'm not very exact with colours! |
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