Versatile Verbascums

Verbascums are fabulous for bringing vertical height and colour to mixed borders, and are perfect for classic cottage-garden planting schemes, says Camilla Phelps

- Camilla Phelps

IF you’re looking for height to add to your borders, verbascum is one of the best plant choices to take you from early summer through to its last throes. It combines cottage-garden prettiness with architectural drama and, with timely flowers arriving in late May, it’s not surprising that this stylish plant often graces Chelsea Flower Show gardens.

Yet verbascums will happily find a home in everyday garden borders, too. Whether you’re cultivating an exuberant cottage-garden look, or a sparser, drought-tolerant, gravel garden style, these plants will provide long-lasting summer colour.

Cutting back flowering spikes 

Verbascums can be short-lived hardy perennial plants, biennials that give you great foliage interest in the first season followed by colourful blooms the next summer or slightly fussy cultivars that might not go past one season of glory. Cutting back flowering spikes will encourage more flowers through the summer and help control the prolific self-seeding types, which can become a bit invasive.

Manage the continuity of your favourite verbascum by encouraging a bit of self-seeding, learning to recognise the young seedlings and moving them before they establish themselves in the wrong spot. It’s also worth saving seed to sow for succession.