Verbascum, Hybrid Mullein, Nettle-Leaved Mullein 'Album'

I have grown this mullein for about 10 years, and I absolutely love everything about it - the foliage, the flowers, the architecture. It...Read More is one of my favorite perennials, and every year I go out and scout for seedlings because I want more, but after 10 years, I only have about five extra plants, so it has not been invasive in my garden at all. In fact, I have recently sown some seeds so I can have more - many more. It's a keeper if there ever was one.

This plant is highly architectural, and unlike most of it's relatives, is a very hardy perennial. It has been surviving to USDA Zone 2, a...Read Morend is a prolific self-sower. The way all Verbascums flower, there are still new buds opening when the first buds that bloomed are going to seed. This plant must be deadheaded religiously or it will take over a garden bed. I am in the process of removing it from my garden. The yellow flowered form is equally invasive. They are pretty, but I prefer the biennial varieties, or the well behaved Verbascum phoeniceum.

This genus consists of semi-evergreen to evergreen perennials, biennials and shrubs from Europe and the more temperate zones of Asia. Inc...Read Moreluding some very large and some very coarse species, the genus offers much variety in the foliage with leaves ranging from glossy to velvety. They develop large, often complex, basal rosettes. Many of the 250 or so species are scarcely better than weeds. However, several are desirable in the garden for their stately habit, gray foliage and long summer-flowering season-the flowers do not open from the bottom up as, for example, delphiniums or foxgloves do, gut a few at a time along the spike.
CULTAVATION: These plants are fully to moderately frost hardy but will not tolerate winter-wet conditions. Establish all species in well-drained soil and an open, sunny location, although they do tolerate shade. Propagate from seed in spring or late summer or by division in winter. Some species self-seed readily.
V. Chaixii
This species from southern Europe can be relied on to live long enough to form clumps. The flowers, borne on 3' tall stems in summer, are normally yellow. The white form 'Album' is usually finer.
Zones 5-10
(Bontanical Encyclopedia)