Getting Long in the Tooth

I've heard it said elsewhere that one of the challenges of gardening in the Carolinas is the length of the growing season. Plants well suited for colder zones get an "early" start in March-April and look rather long in the tooth by the end of the summer.

I'm looking to see if these are good examples. Maybe it's just the wrong site or soil for these plants but here are two plants that I love in the early and mid-season.


Verbena bonariensis, also known as Brazilian Verbena or Verbena on a Stick (my favorite moniker) is a great see-through plant. I have three next to a covered porch extension to the house. I put them them to gaze through to other areas. They continue flowering for a long time and build up quite a mass by mid-August. This is their second season in ground. As you can see, the multitude of little flowers is just a fraction of the length of the whatever-you-call the lower part of the flower bud.

A more obvious example is:

Echinea purpurea, purple coneflower, is another beauty. This shows the two that I have next to Rudbeckia 'Goldstrum'. The one to the left grew higher earlier and has withered away now. There are some odd green dense bunches that are growing. The plant in the middle is smaller, lagged in the growing season, and is starting to decline now. Contrast this with the fine looking black-eyed susans. I'll have to check around and see if the withering is a disease or not.

I'll post again if I can determine a site or sickness problem.