Marianne: Yes, definitely pinch your plant(s). This will encourage the formation of lateral branches and a nice bushy plant. If you haven't grown this before, I think you'll be pleased. It's somewhat of a see-through plant, even if it is bushy. The flowers are also long lasting in vase arrangements.

Yours is a bit delayed in forming but I think you will have flowers yet this year. Once that happens, you won't need to plant them again. This was a prolific reseeder for me in my Ohio Zone 6 garden but such a wonderful, colorful, drought tolerant butterfly magnet that I accepted the job of pulling excess plants as a small price to pay for the results.

I grew it in a curbside planting with miscanthus and cosmos. The cosmos also reseeded and was drought tolerant. The combo of the blue/lavender verbena and the orange/yellow cosmos was eye catching and I didn't have to drag a hose across the yard to have a great display.

June

June, Thanks. I usually would pinch back a plant to encourage bushiness, but I recently bought a couple of flats of Verbena b. from a very reputable nursery (being afraid that my in situ sown ones would never reach flowering stage!) and they were single-stalk plants about 3 feet tall so I thought that maybe this particular plant does not take well to pinching. I will promptly pinch them and my asclepias back :-)

Marianne

June,

BTW, the combination of verbena b. and cosmos s. sounds stunning - do you have any pictures to share?

Sorry Marianne, but that was 2 years ago in my pre-digital camera days so I don't have any pics.

Several years ago I was in line behind a lady who was purchasing a verbena b. at a local garden center. The plants for sale had not been pinched and I suspect she had spent time selecting the tallest one. As the nursery fellow rang her up he casually put his hand on the central stem and snapped it in half. She gasped.

He told her it was the thing to do and I also piped up to assure her that he had done her a favor. Perhaps later in the summer, when she admired her beautiful plant, her dismay turned to appreciation.

Happy gardening - June

June,

What a funny story! And I bet she did appreciate it later on. I actually have some Cosmos s. seeds lying around that I never got around to sowing this Spring. Do you think it's too late in the season for a Verbena/Cosmos tour de force? Otherwise, I'll just wait till next year.

Marianne

Oddly enough, I often cut off the lateral branches of Verbena bonariensis because I want it to be tall and thin rather than bushy!

Marianne: Seems like sowing some cosmos seeds now would be worth a try. They're supposed to germinate in 5 days; add 4-6 weeks to flowering and surely they'll be adding to the fall show in your garden. And...you'll be ahead in your garden for next spring when the self sown seedlings pop up along with their verbena b. companions.

Usually seed packets contain way more seeds than we need so you could hold some back for "in case".

June

I am growing V. bonariensis ((the proper way to shortcut a plant species btw :D)) for the first time. The plants have been self-branching on their own; are between 2 and 3.5 feet (depending on location) and have been blooming for about 2 weeks. Mine are wintersown plants.

Vera