Verbena bonariensis — Purple Top Vervain

Why I grow it

I absolutely love this plant. Purple Top Vervain is one of those wonderfully airy, almost fairy-like perennials that somehow manages to be both delicate and incredibly tough.

Its tiny purple flowers sit in clusters on tall, slender stems, floating above the rest of the garden. I love how it weaves through vegetables, herbs and other flowers without making everything feel crowded.

It's also brilliantly drought tolerant once established, and the bees and butterflies adore it.

At a glance

Type: Short-lived perennial, often self-seeding
Variety: Verbena bonariensis — Purple Top Vervain
Growth: Tall, upright, airy and branching, approximately 1–1.8 m
Flowers: Small clusters of purple flowers on slender stems
Good for: Potager gardens, pollinators, cottage gardens and drought-tolerant planting
Inventory: 1 plant

In the garden

This is a wonderful plant for threading through a potager or mixed flower border.

Because the stems are so slender and the foliage is relatively sparse, you can see through it to the plants growing behind. The flowers appear to hover above the garden, adding height and movement without creating a solid wall of foliage.

It looks particularly lovely among ornamental grasses, echinacea, cosmos and other informal plantings.

Given suitable conditions, it may self-seed and pop up in unexpected places — which, in my kind of garden, is usually a bonus!

For cutting

The long, branching stems make lovely additions to loose, natural-looking arrangements.

I particularly like the idea of using it to add a little height and movement rather than making it the centrepiece of a bunch.

Care

Full sun and well-drained soil. Water regularly while establishing, but once settled it's remarkably tolerant of dry conditions.

Avoid heavy, waterlogged soils. Cutting back spent flowering stems can encourage fresh growth, although leaving some seedheads allows it to self-seed.

In colder areas it may die back over winter and return in spring, or behave as a self-seeding annual.

What you’ll receive

One established Purple Top Vervain plant, grown from seed.

Plants naturally vary in size and shape and may be supplied in reused nursery pots or growing bags — perfectly useful plastic doesn't need replacing simply because it doesn't match.