The base remains ariry and open. Thins stems with scattered long thing leaves at least in my garden bed.

Penny

Thank you, Penny. Sounds like a perfect plant to use!

Mary

Also, even though the stems are long and thin, they are very strong and not floppy. They're kind of similar in appearance to tall garden phlox, but the flower heads are smaller. They also reseed themselves very nicely-they're not garden thuggy at all. Mine's in a tiny bed by itself this year, but I like your idea of mixing it with the milkweed.

Although you don't want to mix a thickly growing plant with your milkweed, one that I have found that really attracts zillions of butterflies is blue mist flower. It spreads from the roots and will take over an area. But it's easy to pull out because the roots are very shallow. It blooms from early Spring to late fall and has fuzzy looking sky blue flower heads and bright light-green foliage. For being on the verge of thugism, it's really a pretty butterfly attractor.

Cheryl

I grow verbena bonarensis with milkweed and it works fine. I have it with both incarnas and aesceplsis (sorry for misspellings). Both are tall and attract butterflies and hummers, which is all I really care about. I don't know that they're a particularly attractive combo, though. But the verbena blooms forever!

VB is a great butterfly and hummingbird plant and you can pretty much leave it where it grows in and among other flowers in the garden.

In zone 7b it may very well overwinter as an evergreen plant, but otherwise reseeds as others have said. Last year I had several VBs stay green all winter, which was nice because they bloomed earlier.

This is one good nectar plant that everyone can include in their garden whether or not they have the space. The hummers really love it.

Susan

My thanks to everyone for all of the helpful information on the Verbena bonariensis plant. This is an excellent thread.

I've ordered and received seed and looking forward to planting it this coming spring. My garden space is limited so anxious to take full advantage of this reportedly outstanding nectar plant for the hummers and butterflies.

Happy Holidays to all.

Mary