Verbena: planting and care for perennial flowers

Verbena is a perennial plant that blooms with beautiful and colorful inflorescences. It has more than 200 species, survives in different conditions. Each variety is characterized by its own characteristics, properties. There are creeping and shrub species, so each gardener can choose a particular type of verbena, the planting and care of which is about the same.

What is this perennial plant?

Most often you can find hybrid varieties of plants. But you can also plant hard, Canadian, Buenos Aires verbena in open ground. In species pink, violet, white, lilac, red inflorescences are found. It is rare to find a yellow tint.

How Verbena Hybrid Flowers Look

Inflorescences are located on the top of the stem, have rounded inflorescences. The size of each of them is small, up to 2.5 cm in diameter. In inflorescences can be up to 50 flowers. Flowering begins from the beginning of summer and lasts until October, but can last until frosts.

Hard verbena

What do verbena look like? All varieties grow in the form of shrubs no more than 1 m in height. The verbena flower is susceptible to the defeat of the caterpillars and butterflies that eat it.

The plant has found application in medicine. Squeezing from its leaves is used to improve appetite, stimulate the gag reflex. The smell of verbena, grown at home, relieves fatigue, eliminates headache.

Ampelic Verbena

Species and varieties

More than 200 varieties of verbena are isolated, but only some of them are used for decorative purposes:

• hybrid. The plant is bred to obtain a new color of inflorescences. In rare cases, it may be yellow-orange. The height of the shrub is not more than 0.5 m, therefore it is considered undersized. Toothed leaves, stems lowered. Inflorescences can be round, in the form of cones, umbrellas. Hybrid varieties from the beginning of flowering to the end of the summer period change the color of the petals. If you take care of the variety in winter, it survives, becomes perennial;
• tough. The leaves are dense, in the form of a wedge, the stems bizarrely branch, the inflorescences are erect, have an elongated shape, a lilac hue;

Lemon verbena

• ampelous (Canadian). The bush is small, the maximum height is 20 cm. Creeping shoots, delicate leaves. If you put verbena in a pot, the branches will hang down, dropping from the pot. The shade of flowers is different: white, pink, purple. It is rare to find a variety of blue;
• citric. Perennial verbena has a lemon aroma. Inflorescences are small, spreading. Color can be lilac or white. Essential oils used in perfumes are obtained from petals;
• Buenos Aires. It has the highest height, reaching up to 1 m. Flowering can last up to two years after sowing. The flowers have a pleasant aroma.

Any of these varieties takes root well, if properly looked after. Therefore, the rules for seed selection, planting, reproduction and care must be observed.

Buenos Aires Verbena

Verbena: Planting and Care

It is recommended to choose soil in which there is no stagnation of water. Garden bush does not tolerate such conditions. Wetlands and lowlands should also be avoided. As for the type of soil, then all varieties of verbena are unpretentious.

If the soil is excessively dense, a layer of drainage consisting of crushed stone, brick bricks is laid in the hole. Loose soil is laid on top, which must allow oxygen and moisture to pass through.

When planting a large number of bushes, take into account that there must be a distance of at least 20 cm between them. If the variety is large, sow at a distance of 40 cm. The advantage of the plant is the inhibition of weeds, which eliminates the need for weeding.

Seed collection

In the fall, verbena boxes dry out, becoming brown. This suggests that you can collect seeds. Boxes are laid out on paper or fabric and wait for their complete drying. To prevent the formation of rot, they must be periodically turned over.

After complete drying, the seeds are taken out, pouring them into a paper bag. It is signed in order to remember in which package the seeds of a particular variety are located.

Planting in garden flower beds and pots

For planting seeds or seedlings, areas with good lighting are selected. The plant loves light and heat, can grow even in drought conditions.

So that a large amount of oxygen and moisture gets to the roots or seeds, the soil is made loose and light. As a fertilizer, humus or a special composition with an acidic pH is used.

Transplantation can be carried out only in spring or summer. It is possible in the fall, but when there are no frosts. Even if the seedlings are underground, they will slow down in growth at sub-zero temperatures.

For planting in open ground, seeds are placed at a distance of 20-60 cm from each other, depending on the degree of growth of the variety. If they plant in pots, pots, do drainage - pebbles are poured on the bottom, only then they fill with soil.

If parts of the plant are used, they are dug out along with a root and a lump of earth. This will protect the root system from the slightest damage. They take root faster. The roots are inserted into a new pot, rearranging in a sunny place with a large influx of air.

Verbena: growing from green cuttings

The apical stems are used as cuttings. This method allows you to grow shrubs faster. There are varieties that reproduce only in this way. How to propagate and grow verbena:

1. Cut green young shoot up to 7 cm long.
2. Remove the lower leaves, exposing part of the shoot.
3. They are treated with root or other growth stimulant, but this is not necessary.
4. The shoot is planted in the ground, the soil should be loose.
5. The pot with a shoot is covered with a bag or a plastic bottle to stabilize the temperature.
6. Leave in a dark room, constantly moistening the soil.

Growing and caring for verbena in the open ground

If verbena bushes are propagated, cultivation is carried out in a certain order. After the appearance of the root system in the sprouts, they are transplanted into the open ground. Nitrogen-containing fertilizers are added to feed. To make the bush lush, you need to pinch the top of the sprout.

Transplantation is carried out at the beginning of summer. June is suitable for this. To seedlings better tolerated the first time in the open ground, while still in a pot it must be left on the street (on the balcony) in good weather. This method is called hardening.

Transplanting is carried out in well-dug up soil. It is periodically watered and fertilized. Then the plant is taken faster, the risk of developing diseases is reduced.

Care for seedlings, seedlings

When the first seedlings appeared, it is necessary to start care. First, top dressing is added, which increases the amount of green mass:

• leaf growth is accelerated by the use of nitrogen fertilizers;
• every two weeks they add mineral fertilizers, which contain more phosphorus and potassium compared to nitrogen (ammophos, nitroammophoska);
• tweak the ampel variety of verbena, which should grow 1 m high, this allows you to make the bush more lush. If the plant should be up to 0.5 m, pinching is not necessary;
• watering must be carried out so that the soil is constantly moistened, but not swamped.

How to care for verbena

Planting and caring for verbena in the open ground is different from caring for seedlings at home.

• The processing of beds. The soil is periodically loosened, especially when the rains have passed. This is necessary for oxygen to reach the roots. So that the weeds between the bushes do not grow, the verbena needs to be mulched or plant the bushes close to each other. They are independently able to cope with weeds.
• For the winter, it is necessary to provide comfortable conditions for the bushes, as verbena is considered a perennial plant. To preserve flowers for many years, all the bushes are carefully dug up together with rhizomes, transplanted into pots, stored in the basement during the winter. If you leave the plant in a bright room, then it can even bloom under the condition of high humidity, which is not possible in all apartments during the heating season. When spring comes, the shrub is cut, transplanted back to the garden. The plant immediately begins to grow, faster than seeds or shoots.
• Watering an adult plant should be regular, but moderate. It is unacceptable to leave dry soil for a long time. The need for watering is determined by the dryness of the topsoil. If it is wet, water is enough; if dry, it is watered. Since mid-July, watering is less common.
• Top dressing. During the summer period during flowering, you need to feed up to four times. More often it’s not worth doing. If the top dressing is organic, it is applied only 1 time over the whole summer. In another case, a fertilizer is used that contains nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other minerals.

How to feed verbena if it grows poorly: nitrogen-containing fertilizers, preparations with a large amount of phosphorus and potassium.

Verbena Flower Diseases and Pests

The shrub is resistant to various types of pathogens, fungal and bacterial infections, parasites. But, if the soil is excessively waterlogged, various diseases often form.

Root rot

• Tospoviruses. This is a pathogen that slows down growth and flowering. Deformed leaves and shoots. Brown spots of irregular shape appear on the sheets. The central vein in the middle of the leaf turns red or brown. The only way to fight is to dig and destroy the plant.
• Rot of stems and roots. The shrub begins to fade. The stalk becomes black and hard, the roots turn white, with the spread of the disease they turn brown. The disease develops faster if the moisture concentration is high. The infected plants are dug up and destroyed. For the prevention of the disease, fosetil is used.
• Powdery Mildew White spots appear on the leaves, consisting of mushroom mycelium. The leaves partially turn purple, dry. If untreated, the bushes die. The infected plant is dug up and destroyed. In the initial stages of the disease, bitertanol and azoxystrobin are used.
• Aphid. The parasite eats leaves, verbena flowers and shoots. Insects attack bushes due to improper watering or excessive use of fertilizers. For protection use pyrimicarb, pymethrosine.
• Moshki. First, they begin to eat leaves, forming pits where midges lay their eggs, and from them appear larvae, even more affecting the plant. The infected flowerbed is completely dug up and destroyed.

Flower midges

For the prevention of the above diseases and parasites, insecticides and fungicides should be used in the spring and summer.

What problems can you encounter while growing

With improper cultivation and care of verbena, various problems arise, which must be addressed in a timely manner.

• Why the verbena plant does not bloom. There are two reasons for this. Poor watering, due to which the soil becomes excessively dry. As a result, the roots do not develop, little nutrients and moisture enter the stem. The second reason is the wrong or reduced amount of fertilizer.
• Leaf spotting. Stains of violet, brown, white color appear on the leaves. This indicates fungal, viral, bacterial diseases. If the spotting has spread to the entire shrub, it is destroyed so that neighboring crops do not become infected.

Verbena is a perennial that grows in various conditions. To enhance the growth of green mass and flowering, the gardener must properly care for him. Plants love large amounts of sunlight, air and moisture. But with the latter you need to be careful so as not to arrange a swamp under the bushes. Due to waterlogged land, verbena will die before our eyes.