Banana Custard Verbascum

Verbascum x hybridum Banana Custard

For a stately presence at the back of a sunny border, a good bet is Verbascum x hybridum Banana Custard. From a silver-grey rosette of handsome felt-like leaves grow strong spikes packed with 5cm-wide flowers in a show-stopping blend of two yellows up to a height of 1.8m.

These colourful plants are short-lived perennials and make superb specimen plants even before the flowers emerge. 

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Great In Your Garden...

The golden yellow flowers of this Verbascum make it invaluable at the back of the border in a cottage garden. If you remove spent flower stems as they fade you will get a second flush of blooms.

Bees, butterflies and other pollinators adore the flowers of Verbascum x hybridum Banana Custard, making it perfect for the wildlife garden. Despite its association with cottage gardens, tall Verbascums look spectacular in a more formal setting, especially as specimen plants in an architectural garden.

As Beth Chatto made famous in her Essex gravel garden, Verbascums are drought-tolerant once established and act as ideal visual breaks when designing a garden.

They can also be grown in the cut flower border for use in vases and in summer arrangements.

Features

• Colour: Yellow flowers.
• Flowering: June to August.
• Foliage: Silver-green leaves.
• Height: 1.8m.
• Spread: 60cm.
• Spacing: 60cm.
• Position: Sun.
• Soil: Well-drained.

Did You Know...

In Ireland, mullein was traditionally used as a folk remedy for tuberculosis.

Plant in full sun, adding well-rotted manure or compost to the planting hole, 60cm apart. Water well until established.

Mulch round the base of the plant in autumn but do not to cover the crown. Deadhead to encourage more flowers.