Ornamental · Verbenaceae
Verbena
Verbena canadensis
Sun all day, soil that drains in a flash, and that's honestly most of it: verbena repays the favor with months of easy color.
Full sun
Every 5–7 days
USDA 6–10
8–18 in · 20–46 cm
Overview
Verbena is one of those plants that just keeps blooming for months without asking much of you. Rose verbena is a low, spreading perennial native to North America, and it puts up clusters of bright flowers from late spring all the way into fall. Once it's settled in, it barely needs a thing, which is why you'll spot it in beds, along borders, and spilling over the side of a pot.
The genus goes from low groundcovers all the way up to the tall, wiry Verbena bonariensis, but they pretty much all want the same stuff: heat, sun, and soil that drains fast. And here's a bonus, they pull in bees and butterflies all season, so a patch of verbena gives you color and a pollinator hangout at the same time. A lot of the garden types are short-lived perennials, so they'll look great for a couple of years and then you just swap them out.
Verbena's happy to be left alone as long as you nail the basics. Put it somewhere sunny where water never sits, and it'll keep flowering with hardly any effort from you. But cram it into shade or damp ground? Then you're trading those flowers for mildew and rot.
Care
The short version: full sun and sharp drainage come first, no contest. Water about an inch a week to keep the blooms going, feed it a couple of times over the growing season, and deadhead or shear it back whenever you want more flowers.
Light
Verbena wants full sun, and honestly the more the better, since it flowers hardest with a long day of direct light. It'll put up with a little afternoon shade, but pile on too much and the blooms thin out and mildew moves in.
Water
Once it's established, verbena is drought tolerant and won't sweat a dry spell, but it blooms best with about an inch of water a week. Water it deeply once a week when rain's short, always down at the base instead of over the leaves, and never let the soil stay soggy. Plants in pots dry out quicker, so keep a closer eye on those.
Soil
Give it well-drained sandy or loamy soil, because if there's one thing verbena won't put up with, it's wet feet. It handles poor, rocky ground no problem and copes across a wide pH range of 6.0 to 8.0, but a soggy, badly drained spot will just rot it.
Humidity
Regular outdoor air is all it needs, so there's no humidity to fuss over. What really matters is airflow, since still, muggy air is exactly where mildew and botrytis get going.
Feeding
Feed it a complete fertilizer like 16-4-8 in mid to late spring, then again after you cut it back. Verbena isn't a big eater, though, and the extra feeding only really makes a difference in very sandy soils.
Pruning
Pinch the tips at planting for a fuller plant, and deadhead as you go to keep the flowers coming. When blooming slows down in midsummer, shear the whole thing back by about a quarter, then water and feed it lightly, and the flowers bounce back in 2 to 3 weeks. Go easy in fall, though, and save the hard pruning for spring, because a big fall cut can knock out its cold hardiness.
Size & spacing
Rose verbena stays low, running 8 to 18 inches (20 to 46 cm) tall, and spreads 12 to 24 inches (30 to 61 cm) wide. Give each one that full spread so air can move through and the spreading habit has room to fill in.
When to plant
Verbena loves warmth and can't handle a frost, so wait for the cold to clear out. Start seed indoors in late winter, or set transplants out once things have warmed up, and the flowers will keep going from spring through fall until the season's done.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Sow: Start seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before the last spring frost
- Plant: Set plants out after the last spring frost once soil has warmed
- Harvest: Blooms spring through fall (April to September in North Carolina)
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 6–10
Temperature: down to -23°C
Troubleshooting
Nearly every verbena problem comes back to one of two things: too much shade or too much water. Keep an eye on the leaves, flowers, and the base of the plant, and if you catch it early a quick change usually turns it around. Find what you're seeing below, then fix it before it spreads.
The whole plant flopping and going mushy near the base in damp soil
If a plant's drooping but the soil is still wet, that's usually root rot from Pythium or Rhizoctonia, or southern bacterial wilt getting a grip in waterlogged ground. Once a plant's that far gone there's no bringing it back, so pull it and toss it. Sort out the drainage first, then pop healthy plants back in somewhere water doesn't pool.
Fix:
- Improve drainage and stop overwatering
- Remove and discard affected plants
- Replant healthy stock in well-drained soil
Leaves and stems looking like they've been dusted with flour
That white dust is powdery mildew, a fungus that likes plants stuck in shade, packed too close, or left too dry. Want it gone? Give the plant more sun and better airflow, and water down at the soil instead of over the leaves. Snip off the worst leaves and you'll slow it right down.
Fix:
- Move or thin plants to improve sun and air flow
- Avoid overhead watering and water at the base
- Remove and discard severely affected foliage
Tiny pale dots all over the leaves, and is that webbing underneath?
Hot, dry weather is prime time for spider mites, and they go for thirsty plants first. The easy fix is a hard spray of water to knock them off, plus keeping the soil from drying out, since that stress is what pulled them in. Still hanging around? Insecticidal soap or horticultural oil will take care of them.
Fix:
- Rinse foliage with a strong spray of water
- Keep plants adequately watered to reduce stress
- Treat persistent infestations with insecticidal soap or horticultural oil
Flowers browning off with a fuzzy gray coating on top
When it turns damp and humid, the blooms can go brown and grow a gray fuzz, and that's botrytis blight. It's not as scary as it looks, so just pick off the ruined flowers and any bits lying around, and keep deadheading so old petals don't sit there rotting. A bit more airflow and drier leaves keep it from taking over.
Fix:
- Remove and discard affected flowers and debris
- Improve air circulation and reduce overhead moisture
- Deadhead spent blooms promptly
Toxicity
Good news if you've got pets or little ones around: garden verbena is safe. The ASPCA doesn't list the genus Verbena as toxic to cats, dogs, or horses, so a stray nibble is no big deal. Just don't mix it up with lemon verbena or lantana (the so-called shrub verbena), which are totally separate plants and are toxic.
Safe for
People · Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Cats None
Got a cat? No problem here, because the ASPCA doesn't list garden verbena as toxic. A curious nibble isn't going to poison them.
Dogs None
Dogs are fine around verbena too, since it's not on the ASPCA toxic list. The most that might happen is a mild, passing tummy ache if your dog scarfs down a big mouthful of any plant.
Horses Safe
Horses grazing nearby have nothing to worry about with verbena.
Rabbits Safe
Rabbits can munch garden verbena just fine, because it hasn't got any toxins that'd bother them.
Livestock Safe
Cattle, goats, and sheep can share a field with verbena and it won't do them any harm.
Birds Safe
Birds are totally fine around it, and pollinators love the flowers without any trouble.
People Safe
Garden verbena isn't toxic to people either. Just remember it's grown to look pretty, not to eat, so there's no reason to taste it.
Varieties
Verbena covers a lot of ground, from trailing groundcovers to tall, airy stems. Here are the ones you're most likely to run into.
Homestead Purple
It's a tough, trailing rose verbena that keeps pumping out glowing purple flowers from late spring right up to fall, and it barely ever bothers you with the usual disorders.
Verbena bonariensis (Purpletop vervain)
This is the tall, airy one that shoots up 2 to 5 feet on skinny stems with little rose-violet clusters on top, which is how it picked up the nickname verbena-on-a-stick.
Verbena × hybrida (Garden verbena)
These are the bedding hybrids you'll see in pink, purple, red, and white that most people just grow as warm-season annuals.
How to propagate
Verbena is super easy to make more of, whether you root a cutting to copy a favorite or just grow it from seed.
Stem cuttingsEasy
Take softwood cuttings during the growing season · Roots in about 2 to 4 weeks
Snip some softwood cuttings during the growing season and they'll root in about 2 to 4 weeks. It's the go-to trick for keeping a named cultivar exactly like the parent, since seed won't copy it reliably.
SeedEasy
Start indoors 6 to 8 weeks before last frost or direct sow after last frost · Germinates and blooms the first season
Start seed indoors 6 to 8 weeks before your last frost, or just sow it straight into warm ground once frost's done, and it'll bloom the same season. The species types self-sow no problem, and bonariensis reseeds so heavily it pretty much comes back on its own.
Myths
Verbena's toxic, so pets and this plant simply don't mix.
Real garden verbena, the genus Verbena, isn't on the ASPCA toxic plant list at all. The whole mix-up comes from lemon verbena (Aloysia) and lantana (shrub verbena), which are two different plants that the ASPCA does flag for dogs and cats. The true Verbena in your bed is safe.
Once verbena's in the ground, it'll come back every single year no matter where it's planted.
Truth is, most garden verbenas are short-lived perennials, so it's smart to just replace them every two or three years. And where winters get properly cold? They don't make it through at all, which is why folks up there grow them as annuals.