Am I Alone?

Am I along when it comes to growing Verbascum? No, not the roadside variety, but some of the more recent varieties and cultivars available. I can't remember seeing Verbascum in any gardens around here for years. V. 'Snow Maiden' is wonderful for its white flowers, and V. olympicum reaching 8' tall this year. And V. 'Banana Custard", for its strong yellows. In my opinion, a very unused plant, with much merit. Long bloom time. Some say, they reseed too much. I haven't experienced that yet.

Did you buy plants or start from seed? I'd love to grow them, but just haven't gotten around to order either. I saw one that was peach colored and thought it was beautiful.

The cultivars failed entirely here, but I have plenty of wild ones and I love them. When I can devote more time and energy to them, I plan to indulge in a few of the colored ones again. I agree, it's an under-utilized plant.

Like Aimee (what are you doing up so LATE???), I have the little wild moth mulleins, V. blatteria, in my perennial border/wildflower weed patch. I look at the cultivars every year, and don't buy for reasons unknown. I love the little wildings - I guess the others just seem too showy for my yard.

T&M and Chiltern have a good variety of seed. I always start them in the basement. Although V. chaixii 'Album' bloomed this first year from seed, and seemed stunted. Should have started it later I guess.

V. "Snow Maiden'

I grew Southern Charm for a couple of years and loved the look,but it seemed too short lived to hang around long and I haven't tried any of the others.

I've got 'Southern Charm' (it's starting to falter now in its third year - can the seed be saved?) and 'Copper Rose'.

I also plant V. phoenicium, which is very easy to grow and pretty.

Part of my problem is heavy clay soil, which I suspect contributes to their decline from one year to another. It doesn't seem to matter how much organic matter I work in or how much mulch I put on top, the next year the soil is rock-hard again. argh!!!

I am growing the pale yellow one, is that Southern Charm? It gets floppy here and needs to be staked and so that is a drawback for me. I also have a verbascum phoeniceum, purple. It seems to hold itself up better. What are some of the other garden varieties.

I too feel the verbascums underrated. i have grow different varieties for several years. Most will selfseed to some extent, especially chaixii, but not a problem and i leave most of them. I love Banana Custard. Blooms for a long time. i have never tried to save seeds, should do that. Donna

Terry I know what you mean about clay soil devouring organic matter and turning it into.....more clay! I am glad I am not the only one who has experienced that and I have been composting and mulching for 30 years! Still whenever I dig a new area I realize that as bad as my composted clay is, it is much better than the original clay!
Golddog, I think your 'Snow Maiden' verbascum is lovely next to your Russian sage.

They reseed all over the place here. I love them. (the tame ones, not the wild, but it grows here too)

Stan brought me a V. blattaria this morning and said, is this something awful? It was a yellow and I took it out and planted it right away. I seem to have lost the white one that I had seeded out in the perennial bed.

i just bought every kind that green mountain transplant company had!
i love them!

ME TOO.....
and some are blooming right now.....

Leaning tower of verbascum. This plant looks a little silly. It must be 8 or 9 feet tall and keeps bonking be on the head when I try to get into that garden to look at things. It's a self sown seedling...from V.bombyciferum (I think).The bees LOVE it... but unfortunately the weevils do too. I sprayed a few times but now that it's blooming I'm afraid to kill the bees and other pollinators that visit it.

I think Southern Charm is a hybrid....aaaakkk! I know better now! I wish that along with the smiley face symbols there could be one of those red circles with a slash through it with 'hybrid' in the center. I'm going to put one on my greenhouse sign next spring.