Overview and growing conditions

Verbena is a flowering perennial. It grows best in a spot where it gets sun for most of the day. It will grow best with an average amount of water, but I never given it water (beyond what it gets from rain) it in my own garden, and it doesn’t seem to be negatively impacted at all.

When does it flower? How long does it flower?

It starts flowering in early summer and lasts until frost. Older flowers will turn a darker purple color and lose petals, but it can be cut back and will regrow many more flowers all throughout the summer and fall.

How easy is it to care for Verbena?

Overall score: 8 (very easy). Verbena will grow and flower even when left completely alone all season. I didn’t give it a 9 or 10 though because it will drop seeds that will regrow into many more baby Verbenas the following year. They can take over a flower bed and may need to be thinned out each spring. Pulling up the new small plants is fairly easy though, and the benefit of this process is that you can quickly and easily multiply your number of Verbena plants to spread throughout your garden.

Preparing Verbena for winter

Verbena doesn’t require any winter preparation if you live in zones 6 or below. It can be left standing throughout winter but may benefit from being cut back in the fall if it flops onto other plants or nearby walkways.

Problems with Verbena

Verbena can get powdery mildew on its leaves as summer wears on. To help avoid this, it can be helpful to remove some plants if you have a lot of Verbena all growing very close together. That will allow more airflow throughout which can help limit the spread of mildew.