Rob's plants home garden plants wildlife seed photos plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook Veronicastrum virginicum

 

Dramatic seed spikes, too Common name culver's root Family scrophulariaceae Life cycle perennial (Z3-8) Flowers white or pale blue (summer) Size 4-7' Light sun Cultural notes ordinary garden soil (not too dry) From seed Seed probably loses viability within a few years; fresh seed germinates easily at room temperature. detailed seed-starting info below Seed ripens late September I'd heard fellow gardeners rave about this plant, with whorled leaves and long flower spikes, but it took several attempts, both purchasing at nurseries and starting from seed, to establish it in our garden. Finally, a few of our seed-grown plants took hold, and have been quite steadfast ever since. They produce their graceful flowers in early summer. I like how the spikes curve around in interesting directions.

Attractively whorled dark-green leaves

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

Seed for this plant is included on my seed trade list

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Veronicastrum virginicum

Seed-starting details for this plant

2003. Seed for 'Fascination' from '02 trade. Baggy 70F with light (19d) - 35F (6w) - 70F (2w). No germination.
2005. Seed from Seeds of Change '03 packet, via '04 trade. Baggy 70F (27d; 22%G, 8-17d) - 35F (6w) - 70 (7d)
2008. Seed from '07 garden. Baggy 65F with light (72%G, 8-13d)
2010. Seed from '09 garden. Baggy 70F with light (64%G, 7-12d)
2011. Seed from '10 garden. Baggy 70F with light (reasonable G, 7-12d)
2012. Seed from '10 garden. Baggy 70F with light (~90%G, 6-15d)
2013. Seed from '10 garden. Baggy 70F with light (good G, 8-12d)
2014. Seed from '10 garden. Baggy 70F with light (no G, 30d)
2015. Seed from '14 garden. Baggy 70F with light (~56%G, 8-10d)

I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.