Hello
I planted some little Verbena bonariensis plants in about May and they grew nicely how I've always seen them - thin dull green stems and sparse leaves that don't catch the eye and pretty pink flowerheads at the top, here supposed to be among ornamental grasses. But in the last three weeks or so, a sort of giant version of them has pushed up in the middle of each plant, much lighter and brighter green, stems and leaves about four times the size and the same little heads of little flowers appearing at the top. They won't look at all good among the grasses when those grow, and in fact they don't look that good anyway because the flowers are so small in comparison! I asked a neighbour who is a gardener what the heck was going on and he said they were just second year stems and my plants are doing really well. But this isn't the typical V. bonariensis effect that I wanted and I can't see any photographs of it looking like that online! Does anyone have any suggestions, please?
Thanks
Clara5

In article ,
says...

On Sat, 13 Aug 2016 20:35:14 +0200, Clara5
wrote:


Hello
I planted some little Verbena bonariensis plants in about May and they
grew nicely how I've always seen them - thin dull green stems and sparse
leaves that don't catch the eye and pretty pink flowerheads at the top,
here supposed to be among ornamental grasses. But in the last three
weeks or so, a sort of giant version of them has pushed up in the middle
of each plant, much lighter and brighter green, stems and leaves about
four times the size and the same little heads of little flowers
appearing at the top. They won't look at all good among the grasses when
those grow, and in fact they don't look that good anyway because the
flowers are so small in comparison! I asked a neighbour who is a
gardener what the heck was going on and he said they were just second
year stems and my plants are doing really well. But this isn't the
typical V. bonariensis effect that I wanted and I can't see any
photographs of it looking like that online! Does anyone have any
suggestions, please?
Thanks
Clara5

You don't say how tall you expected it to grow, but in my garden it
grows typically to between five and six feet, and that's how I've seen
it elsewhere. It also seeds itself around, with vigour. OK if you're
happy with that, but a bit of a nuisance if you don't. They keep
popping up in my garden years after I removed the original plant.
http://tinyurl.com/jksmmo4

Ditto. Mine have heavily colonised a gravel area and are shoulder
height at the moment, in full flower. It's a jungle but gorgeous. I pull
out hundreds of them at the end of summer and they come back even
thicker the next year. If I want some to grow elsewhere I just scatter
the flower heads as they go to seed. (Grown in rich deep soil they get
even bigger but tend to blow over in gales)

vb flowers are purple not pink so I'm wondering if she could have
the wrong name for some other plant.

Janet

Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2016 20:35:14 +0200, Clara5
wrote:


Hello
I planted some little Verbena bonariensis plants in about May and
they grew nicely how I've always seen them - thin dull green stems
and sparse leaves that don't catch the eye and pretty pink
flowerheads at the top, here supposed to be among ornamental
grasses. But in the last three weeks or so, a sort of giant version
of them has pushed up in the middle of each plant, much lighter and
brighter green, stems and leaves about four times the size and the
same little heads of little flowers appearing at the top. They won't
look at all good among the grasses when those grow, and in fact they
don't look that good anyway because the flowers are so small in
comparison! I asked a neighbour who is a gardener what the heck was
going on and he said they were just second year stems and my plants
are doing really well. But this isn't the typical V. bonariensis
effect that I wanted and I can't see any photographs of it looking
like that online! Does anyone have any suggestions, please?
Thanks
Clara5

You don't say how tall you expected it to grow, but in my garden it
grows typically to between five and six feet, and that's how I've seen
it elsewhere. It also seeds itself around, with vigour. OK if you're
happy with that, but a bit of a nuisance if you don't. They keep
popping up in my garden years after I removed the original plant.
http://tinyurl.com/jksmmo4

The tinyurls that you post here always take an age to open, i don't know
why.

I'm not sure it needed shortening anyway as the original is only:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbena_bonariensis

On 13/08/2016 19:35, Clara5 wrote:
Hello
I planted some little Verbena bonariensis plants in about May and they
grew nicely how I've always seen them - thin dull green stems and sparse
leaves that don't catch the eye and pretty pink flowerheads at the top,
here supposed to be among ornamental grasses. But in the last three
weeks or so, a sort of giant version of them has pushed up in the middle
of each plant, much lighter and brighter green, stems and leaves about
four times the size and the same little heads of little flowers
appearing at the top. They won't look at all good among the grasses when
those grow, and in fact they don't look that good anyway because the
flowers are so small in comparison! I asked a neighbour who is a
gardener what the heck was going on and he said they were just second
year stems and my plants are doing really well. But this isn't the
typical V. bonariensis effect that I wanted and I can't see any
photographs of it looking like that online! Does anyone have any
suggestions, please?
Thanks
Clara5






Hi Clara,

Your neighbour was right: second year stems are often much stronger and
taller. They delight me, but are perhaps out of proportion with your
planting plan. I suggest you keep sowing fresh seed (the plant will be
all too willing to help you!) as it ripens each year. This way your
plants will make the first years growth, which is what you feel you
recognise, and which you desire.

VB is a short-lived perennial, so it will always try and survive
subsequent years. The answer is in your own hands. You can pull up
second year plants (seems a shame), or simply cut over-tall stems and
put them in a vase.

--
Spider
On high ground in SE London
Gardening on heavy clay

Thanks to all for advice. I don't mind the height, but the size of the leaves and stems is completely overwhelming the grasses - one in particular is enormous and dwarfs the other verbena stems around it! I'll pull them all up in the autumn and start again from fresh seed. With the slender dull green stems the flowers look so pretty set against a darkish wall as they almost seem to be floating, with the stems barely visible. That's the effect I wanted, not a mass of bright green foliage! Thanks again everybody for helping and apologies for a slow acknowledgement (I was tied up with checking about 2,000 plant names in a gardening book against the clock and no, I don't know what most of the plants look like!)