Hi folks,
Due to lots of encouragement on this forum, I bought a lemon verbena plant this year. It grew like the proverbial weed all Summer and I brought it in and put it in the basement before we got the first frost. It lost all its leaves, as expected, but now I need some more expert advice. Does keeping it almost dry mean to water once a month, once over the Winter, not at all, or what?? Please help! I sure hope that I haven't already killed it by letting it dry out too much.
lemon verbena-how dry is "almost dry"?
I live in Tucson, AZ and used to care for the herb garden at our local botanical gardens. One year we had a lemon verbena that just never looked great because it was in a container and didn't have enough room to expand its roots nor did it get enough sun. So, when the cold weather came around I put the container behind the fence in our junk area and promptly forgot about it. The only moisture it received was from a little winter rain that we always have. That's about once a month or so during December, January, and February. It was in full sun most of the time but I never, ever paid any attention to it. Low and behold, when the weather warmed up in spring I noticed this twiggy little pathetic plant starting to put out leaves. The plant completely recovered and I planted it in the ground in a sunnier location. So, what this means is that, as long as it's kept warm and watered whenever you remember (once a month or so) your plant should recover. The problem is the tendancy to over water. My plant was probably painfully dry most of the winter. Also, as soon as the weather warms up and all fear of frost has passed I'd get that plant outside again in the sun. I was amazed at how resiliant the plant was in spite of total neglect.
Momherb
Thanks! Hopefully the poor thing will still be alive come Spring.