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Surprise arrival (Verbascum chaixii, Nettle mullein)

micearguersmicearguers Posts: 646
in Plants
This plant suddenly made its presence known ... I've tentatively identified it as the Verbascum chaixii. Not sure how it arrived, just a chance seedling or whether it may have hitched a ride in one of the seed orders. Anyway it is very welcome and I hope it will stay!


Posts

  • yarrow2yarrow2 Posts: 782
    It's gorgeous.  What luck!
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    It’s lovely, a nice short well behaved one.
    I grown the tall yellow ones just for the Mullein Moths, they shred it, 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • micearguersmicearguers Posts: 646
    I wonder now if it will self-pollinate, or if it needs to be cross-pollinated. It took some searching, but finally this popped up for the 'common' mullein (V. thapsus): Flowers are also autogamous, so self-pollination occurs at the end of the day if the flowers were not cross‑pollinated. Well it's useful to know that word ... and apparently chaixii is a perennial anyway so that sounds promising.

    As a garden plant it looks great as it doesn't bring a truckload of foliage with it, and the soft white colour lights up beautifully.

    Will keep an eye out for the shredding moths, and welcome them ... hopefully after the plant has really settled.

  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    I have that one and it's reliably perennial here. I haven't noticed a lot of self-seeding. There is one this year where there wasn't last year, but I did some rearranging last autumn so I could have moved a bit of root.
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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