I've always liked the looks of this plant but have never grown in my beds. Wonder if it would make a good pasture plant where it could re-seed to it's heart content if conditions are favorable - ?

@porkchop_z5b_MI, if you every started it in your beds you could have it 'forever'. But it is quite easy to remove what you dont want. Each year for the past several I have removed more and more and what I have now, well as of last year, is quite manageable.

if conditions are favorable

I have had no problems having it grow and selfseed in my garden beds but I have had almost zero success having it grow just beyond our garden in a wild and wooly section of a public park. Each late Fall I purposely take thousands of the seeds collected from my spent plants in the garden and throw them with abandon into this unkempt area just past our fence and I have never seen any of these seeds grow to fruition. So they clearly dont like much competition.

^^ Sounds like wouldn't do well out back in the pasture, then.

It would appear that way PC but your experience might be different than mine.

Mine usually self seed, but not a single one came up! I was so disappointed, i went and bought three.

Hello Janet, I am not sure what zone you are in but in my Z6 CDN I still dont see "offsprng" but they will be there shortly for sure.

I have never seen V. b in the "wild"...yes...L, L, L!

(And yet in almost every British gardening show I view I seem to be able to spot V.b. ;). Given the generally moderate climate of the UK, is the plant not invasive?)

Rouge, I am in southeastern Massachusetts, probably 6b at this point. I will definately keep my eye out! Thanks!

Mine are blooming now and will bloom until frost but I still have some little seedlings just coming up here and there. I get just a few that come back as perennials. When I planted a milkweed garden for Monarchs a couple years ago I planted v. bonariensis in between to give the area some color. They're airy so they don't shade out the other plants and they're mostly annuals for me here so there isn't much root competition either. I'm not regretting it yet.

The ones that do come back as perennials are still pretty easy to pull up.

Although it self seeds happily in British gardens I've never, ever seen it in a wild area.

As I mentioned above I have been unable to to have it grow anywhere outside my well tended garden. And I have tried.

Take a look now @Barrheadlass as I see teeny baby Vbs all over now,

Rouge, I am still looking and spotted one yesterday!

@porkchop_z5b_MI, I thought of you a bit the other day when I spied many verbena b. "babies" in this somewhat odd location ie I have a permanent pot of alstroemeria that I bring into the cold cellar every November or so. And yet today I see lots of evidence of successful verbena self seeding at the perimeter of the pot.

And so it appears from this visual that it should be easie peasie to have it sprout anywhere but again, that has not been my experience when I distribute verbena b seeds in an area with lots of competition.

I'm trying one in a container on my patio and it's blooming pretty good. It needs something to cover its bare legs though.

I also threw some seed heads out into our hayfield a few years ago and none came up. I admit it was a dumb thing to do without a little research first. They would've gotten baled before they had a chance to go to seed in the field so I think it would be very difficult for them to spread out of control.

I like that it attracts all sizes of butterflies and bees too.

I think this is a black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

I took a picture of this Monarch so I could zoom in to see whether it's male of female. I think male. ??

I saw several of these but I don't know what they're called. It was a small butterfly.

Great pics @christinmk z5b eastern WA.

Funny you mention having verbena b, in pots as I did similarly for the first time a few weeks ago but with the shorter Verbena bonariensis Vanity.

(Unlike you I have had no success getting verbena to self seed in the "wild")