I am fairly new to gardening (last two years). My beautiful red verbena that has been wonderful for the last month has started to turn brown. I had a pink one last year that did this also. It stays in full sun and is watered daily. Can anyone please help me with this? I love these plants and enjoy them so much.
Thanks,
Pedro's helper
Are you actually checking to see if it needs water, or do you just water daily no matter what? Depending on how hot it is and how fast your basket is drying out, once a day could be too much or it could be too little, or I suppose you could be lucky and it's just the right amount. I'd stick your finger down in the basket before the next time you were planning to water, if it still feels wet then you're watering too much. And if it feels absolutely bone dry, then you need to water more. Or if it's drying out really fast and you don't have time to water multiple times a day, then you might want to repot with some moisture control potting mix, that'll stay wet a little longer. Also when you do water, don't just water a tiny bit to "top off" the container, it's best to let things dry out a little in between waterings and then give the plant a thorough soaking.
Ecrane is right, it looks like a water problem, or even a soil problem, depending on which type of soil you have used, for hanging baskets, you need a good quality potting compost, one that has got plenty of the nutrients added to it, if not, then you need to add some feed at planting time so the plants can feed all through the season, as for water, do the test Ecrane mentioned by using your finger, if your plants are in full sun all day, I can see the soil being kept too wet, as these baskets dry out very fast, mine need watered morning and evening as the breaze and sun dry the basket lining out and the soil, also I add liquid feed once per week as I water as there is not a lot of compost held in a basket, so the plants take up the moisture and the roots grow fast therefore use up lots of the nutrients within the soil, so if the soil feels dry when you pock your finger into it, I would suggest you take the basket off the hanging hook and sit it in a bucket or large bowl of water for a couple of hours and let the liner and the soil soak up as much water as it can take, then hang the basket up again as really dry potting compost is very difficult to wet again as it goes into a solid lump and any water just runs off it, I do this a couple of times a week as well as normal watering, every second soak I add some of my liquid tomato feed to the water, even when you do the first soak if it is needed, stick your finger into the soil as you may find it is so solid it has been unable to soak up the water, if the soil is hard packed, there will be no air around the roots either, this is naturally found in the soil, but when hard packed, the roots cant seek it out, you may also find that the hot sun is actually burning the plants, Ive sometimes had to make a little shade for them by using a newspaper to protect them for a couple of hours at the hottest part of the day, but try out all the other suggestions first and try save your lovely little plants, remember you need to dead head these plants often too or the flowering will stop and seeds will be set, then the plants will die off quicker. Dead heading tricks the plants into thinking it has to make more flowers as all they want to do is grow, flower then set seeds, so dead head as often as you see any faded flowers, Good Luck. WeeNel.
Ya know, I've got one of the peach ones that I got off of the "dead and dying" rack at Lowes. And even though it looks so much better than it did, I don't think it looks any better than the one you have in the picture. I'm starting to think that verbena might not be a good container plant, perhaps better stuck in the ground. I've grown it in the ground before and it has *never* looked this bad. It's usually a pretty drought tolerant plant, too, so keeping it moist may not be to it's liking.
I've grown them in containers and they do fine, the key is to keep them with the right amount of moisture, don't keep them dripping wet but don't let them completely dry out either. And when you do water, water thoroughly, not just putting in a teensy bit of water to moisten the surface of the soil.
the watering problem could be because of the type of pot you have it in. did you line the basket with anything. those kinds of baskets dont hold water very good. i got a few this year and i wont get them anymore! i have the same plants bought at the same time and kept in the same conditions and the ones in the plastic pots are doing so much better. water just runs right through the basket. i pretty new at this too so i may be way off. lol. anyways good luck! :)
Jess you are absolutely right about the baskets not holding onto water, that is why everyone is telling you you need to make sure the soil is really wet when you do water, another reason why I have to plunge mine into a large bucket of water a couple of times a week, this is to allow the compost to soak up the water, open baskets were made to be lined with moisture retaining stuff like moss, but now we use all sorts of linings like cardboard that wont take water for love nor money, dried grass woven is another sort of material used, then there is woven straw, all get really hot and insulate the plant roots but dont hold water, so it is not the lining you need to wet, but the soil inside this, remember, there will be a lot of roots growing and filling a small area of soil so these roots are all competing for water, the baskets need soaked till your fingers tell you the soil is wet enough, also wind and breezes dry out the baskets, so your lovely little plants really have to battle to survive, it is for sure plants survive better when growing in the garden beds, that's because they have more room at the roots and somewhere to search for moisture deeper into the soil, but in a basket, they are restricted, hope this helps you understand what is needed more for baskets than growing things in beds/borders. good luck. WeeNel.
Verbenas are also prone to mildew causing the leaves to turn brown. This happens when the leaves don't get a chance to dry-out during the night.
I also notice the same problem when the leaves touches the ground or soil while they're wet. Do your watering during the daytime or the morning so the leaves have the chance to dry-out in sunlight. Mulching will also help with the problem.
Less deep watering is better than watering everyday.
