They're considered a tender perennial. You don't have to worry about overwintering pots in protected areas; they grow like weeds. Every year they seed around in large areas. You can move the seedlings easily because they're very tough.

Hedy

george,
DTD, digginthedirt, is Queen of this plant so she'll give you the full skinny on it, but i'm going to guess that she will tell you to scatter the seeds now and plant the plants in temporary spots,but not in pots.they are a z7-10 perennial.
best,
mindy

They are definitely tender perennials, and a good percentage of them overwinter for me, so they probably will for you too, George. I agree with Mindy that you might be better off getting them out of their pots into some well-drained spot in the garden. They should transplant easily in spring if you move them when they first start to leaf out.

A good trick for acquiring these is to take anything at all that I bring to a swap; it's ALL full of V.b. seeds. If Marie has a spring swap I will definitely be there, or if there's a midwinter escapade at Logees or elsewhere, I will bring a carload of seeds, if you'd like more for insurance. I fact, I'll start collecting them now, maybe someone will want them this spring.

BTW, I've always wanted to be queen of *something* - so thanks, Mindy.

Thanks, ladies.

DTD, what should I do with seadheads, just throw them around or bury in a soil? I have all beds mulched, but still hundreds of platycodon seedling coming up every year.
Could you tell me why you are against overwintering in a pots? I have many different means to effortlessly overwinter potted plants and those two wouldn't make my life neither easier nor worse.
I think that one of the areas I'm planning to introduce it will be not ready for planting till early-mid summer of next year (have to see how my weeds killing effort works, remove some stumps and roots, mark daffodils clumps that already there, etc etc), but growing it somewhere else in ground might create more inconvinience than to keep it in a pot untill I'll be ready to plant it.

George, I've never marked the position of these so I don't know if the actual plants winter over from year to year but they definitely seed around-sort of like Cleomes. It's possible I may be the queen of Cleomes but I've been trying hard to demote myself to princess...lol.

BTW, tender salvias like S. guaranitica 'Black & Blue' and S. coccinea seeded all over the place in my garden this year. Gotta love those zone 7 winters.

Sue

You may have better luck (or more skill) at overwintering things in pots than I do - here things seem to either drown or dry out too much. It may just be my lack of a good site for overwintering pots, maybe these will be fine held over that way.

I'd probably just sprinkle the seeds, but when I originally started these from seed I followed the directions in "From Seed to Bloom" - barely cover the seed with soil. That was indoors, in early spring.

The reason I think many of the old plants overwinter is that some are so much larger and more multi-branched than others early in the season. It seems too much of a range in size for them all to be from the same generation.

Wayne Winterrowd says you can take stem cutting easily; make sections with 2 joints each, remove leaves from the lower joint, root them in damp sand ... they will root in 3 weeks.

Nan, thanks for reply.
Just out of curiosity I'll try stem cutting tomorrow and see how it works, though it might be too late in a season for them to root.
BTW, I found that in mix of 1/2 of damp sand +1/2 of potting soil (with no Miracle Grow added) practically everything roots very easy, from perennials to shrubs.

I can't imagine going to any special trouble to try to insure that you will carry these through the winter because they take care of their own future in such a big way. They still show up regularly for me in areas of my yard where I planned to clear them all out years ago. I aggressively pull them up as soon as they appear so I shouldn't have new seeds being sown in that area. Nonetheless, each year quite a few appear. I like them well enough that they are still in one of my beds, but I actually got worried when I saw them traveling down my street in the sidewalk cracks. I pictured reading about an invasive non-native plant introduced by gardeners etc. That's when I decided not to have them out at the front of my house. So don't worry. You will have these next year. I do agree they have great value in a border.

I have tubs full of it in a gravel area. Something tells me that seedlings will be coming up in the gravel next spring! No complaints though; if they do sprout, I'll just put them back in the tubs.

hi all - I agree that although in some climates they are perennial, they are not here in central MA. However, these guys will continue to reseed in your garden for years to come..we had one growing out of the mortar between our brick walkway! They are easy to pull so I do the same as Cady, I yank the volunteers in early summer and replant them en masse in certain areas of my garden. On a slope with Rudbeckia and Ornamental Millet, they look quite lovely swaying in the breeze. They are a really nice soft violet addition to a vase of cut flowers.

Other benefits of Verbena bonariensis is that hummingbirds and butterflies adore them, and the golden finches love the seeds in fall. In all, a great plant!!!

Ellen

I started some Verbena bonariensis with the Winter Sowing method last winter. They were good germinators and easy. I got to thinking they might be too heavy a reseeder for me, so I kept them out of the garden all season. I still had a milk jug full of little seedlings hanging around the yard. Then last week I saw a photo of echinacea with verbena bonariensis and loved the combination. After that and all the great things everyone has said about it, I finally broke down and planted them out among the echinacea. I got about 6 Hunk of seedlings out of the jug, so a pretty good start for next year. Just dragged home a Harvest Moon and Sundown echinacea from GITWs and can't wait to see how they all look together next year.

If you haven't tried winter sowing yet, wow, it is great.

:-)

I think this is one of those plants that really needs to be in the right setting (which is different for everyone, of course!).

Last year I got a potful of this from the swap, and absolutely LOVED it! It lived in its pot in the driveway all year (as do most of my plants, lol) and was so full and beautiful. I just had to have more.

So, I winter-sowed some this past spring, and thought it would look nice interplanted with my Lyda Rose rose. Well, I made two mistakes. One, I planted it too far in front, as opposed to behind or even in amongst the rose, and two, I planted too sparsely. While it bloomed well (and made gorgeous additions to my bouquets), in the garden it looked sparse, gangly, and just all-around out of place.

I was on the verge of not sowing more next year, but after this thread I realized I just had it in the wrong spot. The echinacea/verbena combos above sound gorgeous, so I think I'll give it another try next year - at the back of the border!

:)
Dee

Wish I could remember where I saw the photo of them together, Dee. They really were gorgeous. I put the verbena very close to the echinacea plants. The echinaceas are planted rather close together, maybe a foot apart and the verbena is in between those. The grouping is in the middle of my bed, with asclepias and Joe Pye Weed behind. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will look the way I am picturing it next year.

:-)

It doesn't matter if you plant it in the back of the bed, Dee, it will reappear in the front the following year. It's considered a see-through plant, and it's a good thing, because it has an unbeatable instinct to move forward. I move tons of them to the back of several beds, but there are always more to outwit me.

Yes, it's sparse and gangly, not to everyone's taste. Also best appreciated from a distance, IMHO, especially after the mildew hits it on August 15, every year.

DtD (Queen of Vb)

LOL, DtD. Well, at least I will TRY to put it at the back of the bed to start out with! Like I said, when they were all crowded together in the pot I loved them. I really missed the boat when I planted them in front of that rose. The color combination is good, but they're just not quite located properly (not to mention a foot taller than the rose!). Oh well, live and learn... and move more plants, lol!

PM, I've got a Harvest Moon and a Sundown, so I'll give the VB a try next to these. Thanks for the idea.

:)
Dee

P.S. Can these be pinched back to get shorter, fuller plants?