Blue Vervain
Verbena hastata
Candelabra spikes ringed with blue-violet bloom from July through September in wet spots. Seed heads feed sparrows and goldfinches into winter.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
Rain garden workhorse that delivers months of pollinator nectar, architectural branching form, and winter bird seed all in one plant.
Blue Vervain brings a distinctive late-summer silhouette to wet and moist gardens: the branching candelabra of thin, pencil-like spikes, each studded with tiny blue-violet flowers that open progressively from base to tip in a moving ring of color. The show runs from July through September and the whole plant develops a sculptural branching form that looks almost architectural against the sky. Plant it at the edge of a rain garden or low area where water collects, and watch it fill out to four or five feet with ease. The seed heads that follow are equally valuable: small, triangular nutlets packed along the dry spikes that white-throated sparrows, swamp sparrows, and goldfinches harvest through fall and early winter. Blue Vervain was an important medicinal plant for numerous Indigenous nations across its wide native range, and it remains one of the most ecologically productive plants for wet garden margins, providing late-season nectar, larval host support for several specialist bees, and persistent seed for birds.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown blue vervain propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
Plant blue vervain instead of Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) in wet, open areas. Same job in the garden, without the spread.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Wet
- Mature size
- 3–5 ft · 18–24 in wide
- Bloom time
- Summer through early fall
- USDA zones
- 3–9
- Family
- Verbenaceae
- Native range
- North America from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, south through the eastern and central US; moist meadows, wet ditches, stream edges
Care notes for blue vervain.
Full to part sun, moist to wet soil. Ideal for rain gardens, pond edges, wet meadows, and low spots. Tolerates brief flooding. Self-seeds prolifically in moist, disturbed soil. thin seedlings to prevent overcrowding. Deadhead some but leave seed heads for birds. Spreads by reseeding, not rhizome. Cut to ground in early spring.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside blue vervain.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.