Verbena bonariensis - One of the BEST Herbaceous Perennials for Your Garden

Well hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Biology Garden and in this video I would like to talk to you about my all-time favourite non-native herbaceous perennial. Now non-native versus native I think people get a bit hung up on, it's a topic for another day, but today my favourite non-native herbaceous perennial in the entire world is this fabulous stuff which is of course Verbena benariensis which no doubt if you've been following the channel for a while you'll have been hearing me badger on about all the time it's just or bang on about it's just incredible I've clocked over 17 species of butterfly just here in the UK nectaring on this plant along with or including many of these small whites green vein whites and large whites that are all over this wonderful plant today and also there's been a I couldn't quite as is always the case I couldn't quite get my camera out in time to film the hummingbird hawk moth which was having a drink on this stuff a little while ago which is obviously a wonderful site and migratory moth species from the continent from the Mediterranean which comes over to the UK every year now it's also known as purple vervein Argentinian vervein South American vervein and it originates from South America but I absolutely love it and it's just an awesome splash of colour in any garden at this time of year now it's the beginning of September but this thing has been flowering since the end of June and it will continue to flower until November so I personally cannot think of another plant that I know of in a garden setting or in the UK in fact that will flower apart from maybe gorse which has kind of frequent flowering sprees throughout the year that has such a prolonged period of nectar available for so many pollinating insects and it's not just butterflies and moths that use this stuff it's covered in bees all over the place at the moment it really is and I'll obviously be putting a few clips over the top of this so you can see it's such an incredible plant what I also love about it is when I'm designing a lot of the herbaceous borders that I design for the wildlife gardens that I install around the UK I could almost put this plant anywhere so it might go in with some echinaceas some nepetas salvias all sorts of wonderful plants in their own right but this stuff you could almost put it in front of a border middle of a border or back of a border and you can sort of see through it so it's very kind of transparent which makes it a great plant for kind of anywhere it pops up in and there's even some right down the front of this border which have self-seeded from the original plants behind me so it really does create a wonderful block and it will spread through the garden not invasively and not to any huge numbers but it will create these wonderful clumps it's quite a sort of a short to mid-term perennial I would say so you will get a good sort of two to five years out of a single plant so really really good and then of course the successional plants that are dropped by the seeds of these plants will grow and germinate to create kind of a perpetual clump of this brilliant perennial plant now as I say I've recorded about 17 species of butterfly on this plant alone which is right up there with buddleia as well buddleia are obviously a non-native shrub here in the UK I know it's classed as invasive in different countries around the world but buddleia another great one and actually when you look at closely when you look at the flowers when you compare them the flowers of a buddleia to the flowers of a verbena they are very very similar which I think is a big reason as to why these plants are very attractive along with the buddleias of course which are equally as attractive and also known as the butterfly bush now this plant itself will grow in many conditions but it prefers moist but well-drained soils if you can so kind of sandy soils I mean it'll even grow I've seen it self-seed through gravel areas it'll grow literally just in gravel or shingle where it can just get its toes in it's very very very good at dealing with hot temperatures or heat I mean for example here in the UK we've had 40 degrees recorded here for the first time ever in history this year and this stuff it's not bothered is it let's be honest so it's absolutely thriving and it will do very well in hot dry conditions so it really is a wonderful plant if you're planting to try and future-proof your garden for any increases in temperature any likely hot summers that we are well yeah likely to get I think moving forward so it really is a cracking plant for that so well-drained soils it does very well and it'll almost grow in sand you know it'll do okay in clay but it prefers well-drained soils if it can but as long as they're a bit moist but again even if they're not it will do very well in sandy conditions and I absolutely love it because it has a very rigid stem so it's uh it's not one of these plants like a lot of plants we see where when they flower the tops get heavy they start to sort of sag over a bit we have to support them things like the peters and that they can sort of splay out a bit whereas the verbena benarientes has a very rigid rigid stem so it's very good at obviously keeping its structure and just well having a very elegant posture I think and a certain stature about it which I just absolutely love so it really is a cracking plant and one that I would certainly never consider making a garden without including in the plant list that's for sure um I've seen it in meadows as well you know there's a client that I manage a meadow for and um he's planted them in the meadow and it's actually spread a little bit through the meadow not to any massive extent but it's a really lovely addition to the meadow itself so a really good plant and one tip I would say is if you are looking to encourage insects into your garden between June and November obviously choose this plant but also keep it well watered if you can because as with most plants the more water they have the more nectar they can provide equally the less it rains and we've had so little rain here in the last couple of months it's almost unheard of really but we've had very very very little rain here for the last few months here in the UK so the less rain there is the less nectar these plants can produce so I would recommend watering them through the summer and then they will be more appealing they'll have more of a nectar well if you like for the insects that are visiting them so some of the butterflies that I have counted visiting these plants for those that are interested are things such as gatekeeper ringlet meadow brown small skipper large skipper small white green vein white large white red admiral small tortoiseshell painted lady peacock brimstone that's 13 off the top of my head I can't remember which ones I've said now but so they really are brilliant and I cannot recommend them highly enough so yes if you haven't thought about getting some in your garden I strongly recommend verbena bernardensis obviously for all the other wild flowers we aren't selling this on the online shop at the moment I'm working on it so for those of you that are keeping an eye on the wild you garden online shop do keep an eye on the channel we have hopefully some more additions coming soon in the way of herbaceous perennials which I'd love to be able to offer you guys in the UK they are such an addition to any garden in my opinion but keep your eye on the channel and there are obviously a lot of wild flower seeds potted plants plugs pond plants pond liner all that sort of stuff so do check out wildygarden.com if you haven't already for lots of other goodies now I could stand here and watch these butterflies all day but sadly I've got to go and see a client so I hope you've enjoyed the video guys please feel free to stick around and if you haven't I'm actually in the garden of my good friend Stephen Moss where I've just made a wildlife pond for him so down here in Somerset so if you haven't seen it already do check out the interview I did with him which I'll put a link to at the end of this video and also the wildlife pond which I'll be uploading shortly if it's not already on the channel depending on when this goes out I filmed the entire process of making a wildlife pond for him which is just behind the camera and has already within 24 hours had common darter egg laying in it common darter dragonflies egg laying in the margins of the pond and we now have a pond skater who's ready so absolutely brilliant I don't need to sing the praises of wild wildlife ponds I'm sure you guys watching the channel will absolutely know and thanks for the support guys a message as well that you know huge thank you to you all I'm sorry I've not been posting as many videos as I normally have been it's been an absolutely manic summer so far I was in Dorset last week Somerset this week and now I've got three weeks coming up in Derbyshire so all over the face but don't worry I've been filming everything that I've been creating this year so there'll be lots of new content coming up for you guys in the coming months so stay tuned feel free to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already give the video a like and I'll be sure to bring you many more videos on all the ways in which you can help wildlife in videos to come thanks for watching I'll see you soon