Lascar™ Verbena

Verbena ‘Lascar™ Black Velvet’

In the summer landscape, verbena is a sun-loving staple. It’s prized for its vivid colors but this plant is as tough as it is good-looking, standing up to heat, humidity, and drought like a trooper. Verbena is also known for its long bloom season; flowers start in mid-spring and keep going until frost, outlasting many other annual and perennial varieties. All in all, it’s an important tool in the designer’s tool box.

‘Trailing Plum’ steals the show

Our line of sun coleus is ever expanding, and this variety in particular elicits a lot of oohs and ahhs. You can see why: the deep burgundy and bright magenta combo is striking, and the silvery white edges put it over the top. If I didn’t know it was a plant, I’d swear I was looking at some fancy brocade fabric.

‘Trailing Plum’ is a thriller for sure—unusual plants like this get our creative wheels turning. Try pairing it with ‘Lime’ ipomoea and some other funky coleus, like ‘Aurora Black Cherry’ or ‘Pink Chaos’. A little ‘Goldilocks’ creeping Jenny would look pretty trailing along beside it out of a planter or window box.

In the landscape we use ‘Trailing Plum’ en masse for a striking display of color in sun or shade areas. It makes an elegant border edging as well.

Coleus ‘Trailing Plum’

 We grow this variety in the 6-inch pot.

Hot, trendy and chartreuse! 

We’ve brought back a favorite option for brightening hot, sunny dry spots. Sedum shows its best color in full sun and this color is hot: chartreuse. Yes, it’s trendy, and with good reason. It’s eye catching on its own, and it makes other colors pop—like a highlighter. 

‘Lemon Ball’ is unique. The foliage is spiky and needle-like, yet it creates soft, dense mounds. At 4–6 inches high it’s great for edging a stone path or brightening a rock garden, in addition to its supporting role in combinations. Pretty yellow star-like flowers bloom in summer.

This selection is available in the 1801 landscape tray. It’s one more go-to plant to keep in the design tool box.