Morris County Park Commission

By Bruce Crawford Horticultural Manager

An Annual of Yesteryear Providing Airy New Dimensions

names considering the plants easily reach heights of 3-4’ and are topped with purple flowers. The light green stems are slender, square and stiffly hairy or hispid. The main stem readily branches along its upper half, with those stems in turn branching again, ensuring there are ample clusters of the apical flowers. The unique and garden worthy trait for Purpletop is the shear strength of these tall stems. Often only ⅛” in cross section, they have an impressive ability to proudly support their flowers, even in the face of wind or rain! The sparse, olive-green foliage is oblong to linear in shape, measuring 1-4” long by ¼-¾” wide. Arranged oppositely along the stem, the broadest leaves are located near the base of the plant. Come midsummer, additional flowering stems sprout from the leaf axils of these lower leaves, ensuring colorful blooms until frost.

The flowers appear on 1-3” diameter flat-topped structures called a corymb. For Verbena bonariensis, the corymb is densely packed with floral buds, allowing blooms for well over a month. Each flower features five petals roughly ⅓” long that are fused along most of their length to create a long basal tube that is maroon or maroon-red in color. As the flowers open, the tips of the petals reflex backward producing a ¼” diameter flower with a rosypurple to blue interior, which nicely complements the dark maroon floral tubes below.

The flowers are also a flurry of activity, attracting long tongued bees and a variety of butterflies. Following pollination, each flower hope so, we’ll find out soon. There is not much to be done to your lawn this month. If your lawn has gone dormant this summer, it is best to ride this out until the fall to start re-seeding, fertilizing or watering if needed. Will we experience any hot, dry spells before fall arrives? We can access what we need to due in early fall to “fix” any problem areas in your lawn. I do hope that you can check off a lot of this summer’s to-do list by now. This list of course is not a projects list but a “fun” list of things to do. Did you make it to the shore at least once, have a picnic, see fireworks, visit the boardwalk, throw a few dice, or play some beanbag toss? I hope so and if not, you have a few weeks left before the fall schedule arrives. Enjoy summer!

Editor’s Note: Todd Pretz is Vice President of Jonathan Green, a leading supplier of lawn and garden products in the northeast. For more information, please visit: www.jonathangreen.com modest 1-2’ tall and 2-3’ wide. It is ideal for smaller gardens and for container culture. The flower corymbs are slightly smaller in size although they are equal to the species in the number and length of bloom! Lollipop seedlings are hardy from zone 7-11 and following a warm NJ winter it is not unusual to see a few plants resprouting. Adaptable to soil pH, plants require well-drained soils in full or dappled sunlight to thrive. produces four small nutlets or seeds, many of which will selfsow and appear the following spring. Invasive in southern regions of North America, unwanted seedlings are easily pulled or destroyed by disturbing the soil in May.

The beauty of this plant lies in those tall airy stems that easily allow people to view through them to plants or subjects beyond. This trait makes it a great option for planting at the front of the border, since the act of viewing through the stems gives the garden greater depth and apparent size. Plus, it is fun to interplant Verbena bonariensis amongst shorter annuals or perennials, giving the garden a 3-dimensional effect with multiple levels of color!

‘Lollipop’ is a more recent introduction growing to a more

Providing a number of unique and fun design solutions most annuals cannot provide, Verbena bonariensis remains a readily available yet little seen ‘annual’ for summer color. Wellmannered in maintained gardens and beloved by pollinators, what was once considered a traditional bedding plant is providing airy new dimensions for contemporary gardens!

Editor’s Note: Bruce Crawford is a lover of plants since birth, is the Manager of Horticulture for the Morris County Parks Commission, and a Past President of the Garden State Gardens Consortium. He can be reached at BCrawford@ morrisparks.net