Plant profile: Verbena bonariensis

It has been said that this species of Verbena is named after one of my favorite cities in the world - Buenos Aires. Supposedly the plant was brought from that city in Argentina to the UK in the early 1700s.

John gave me a little bit of this in August '09. I planted it at the top of the garden and forgot about it. Suddenly it was 6' tall and flowering like mad!

Recently I got several seedlings from Shen too - we're planting them now at the top of the garden, and on the Mariposa Center Garden.

Latin name: Verbena bonariensis (pronounced "ver-BEE-nah bon-are-ee-EN-sis")
Common name: Tall Verbena, Purpletop Vervain, Tall Verbena, Clustertop Vervain, or Pretty Verbena
Blooms: Right now it's covered in tiny purple flowers in bunches on the end of very long stalks. The flowers are very attractive to butterflies, and provide nectar for native bees and many beneficial garden insects.
Light: Full sun!
Water: Drought tolerant.
Originally from: South America from Colombia and Brazil to Argentina and Chile.
Where to find in P. Garden: In the red bed, on the street end. Also at the very top of the garden we recently planted some seedlings.

A tender perennial hardy in USDA Zones 7-11, it's commonly grown from seed which germinate readily (all over your garden, in fact...), but also can be propagated from herbaceous stem cuttings anytime. It can be grown as an annual in areas where it is not winter hardy and it will bloom in the first year when grown from seed.

UPDATE June 2016:
Somehow these have disappeared. Did they get pruned too hard? Pass out from the heat? Not known. They were great and I'd try them again though!