Verbascum

Gardeners are rarely in two minds about verbascum, they either love them or hate them.  Verbascum seem to do well at flower shows and look wonderful in the cottage garden and Verbascum grown in pots and containers are ideal for the patio.

Verbascum ‘Cotswold King’ is a lovely plant.  The colouring of the large flowers is graded from bright chrome yellow at the top to very pale lemon at the lower edge.  Those verbascum have an outstanding scent and would be worth growing for this alone.  Although Verbascum are often treated as annuals, it is possible to get a second season by cutting stems down to ground level once they have finished flowering.  Verbascum are very easy to grow from seed, sowings in early spring will flower the same year, while late sowings will flower the following year.

There are hundreds of verbascum species from Turkey, the Middle East and the Mediterranean and many grow well in the UK, providing they have poor, preferably alkaline soil and a sunny position.  Most are tall and erect with the flower spike rising from the centre of a large rosette of felted leaves.  Verbascum olympicum is a giant and can reach eight foot, Verbascum vombyciferum is more manageable and has thickly felted rosettes and woolly columns.  If the Verbascum are in their ideal position they seed freely and you will soon have a mass of Verbascum.
If you have limited space you might try Verbascum dumulosum which is a dwarf bush smothered in short spikes of yellow flowers and oval, woolly leaves.  It is particularly suited to container growing and ideal for the patio.

Verbascum ‘Helen Johnson’ with its terracotta flowers clustered symmetrically around a two foot high stem has become one of the most grown plants, although it tends to sulk in very wet English winters.
Verbascum chaixii ‘Album’ is a very fine plant and worthy of a place in any garden.  Not only will it grow in a sunny border, but it will also thrive in dappled shade.  It is long lived, easy to grow and seeds freely.  It is one of the parents of the Cotswold Hybrids, developed in the 1930s.

Verbascum chaixii ‘Gainsborough’ has pale lemon flowers with delicate orange stamens and anthers.  Verbascum chaixii ‘Mont Blanc’ is a pure white variety, which is lovely in a silver and white planting scheme.  ‘Pink Domino’ is ideal in pastel planting schemes.  Verbascum chaixii  ‘Cotswold Beauty’ is similar in colour to ‘Helen Johnson’, but has taller, branching spires.  Its foliage is deep green and slightly shiny and it mingles well with other plants.  Another plant used in creating the Cotswold Hybrids was Verbascum phoeniceum, the purple mullein.  V.phoeniceum ‘Violetta’ is particularly desirable with purple flowers lit up by white anthers. 

 New Verbascum hybrids are appearing all the time.  Two of the best groups are the Breckland verbascums, developed by nurserywoman Patricia Cooper and The Riverside verbascums bred by National Collection holders Vic Johnstone and Claire Wilson.  Mariner Christopher of Phoenix Plants in Hampshire has worked closely with the development of both groups of plants and is offering new mulleins from both these sources.

All Verbascum like free draining soil and a sunny position.  Avoid peat, animal dung and any humus rich material when planting.  If you have clay or rich loam, impoverish the soil with grit, sand and gravel.  Verbascum flower from the bottom of the spike.  New lateral flower spikes will emerge at each leaf node.  The seed head of monocarpic species can be left to tower over the winter garden.  Sow seed on the surface of a seed tray in John Innes loam, cover with grit and water from below by dipping the tray in a sink and then stand outside to germinate and you should enjoy a good spread of Verbascum in the summer.