Speedwell (Veronica) is valued for its blue spike flowers, but this perennial comes in other colors, too, including white, pink, lavender and purple.
Most are easy to grow with long flowering season. There are 250 veronicas that are native to North America. Some are upright and some are prostrate.
The main problem with this plant is its susceptible to fungus disease, such as powdery mildew. The first one I grew was ‘Sunny Border Blue,’ which was the 1993 Perennial Plant of the Year. It did not thrive in my garden because of the mildew and I eventually pulled it out.
The Chicago Botanic Garden evaluated 64 types of spweedwell for six years, determining which cultivars were the best. Seven earned four and one-half stars for their performance.
In all honesty, I’ve not heard of any of the veronica cultivars that ranked the best. None of them seems readily available.
As with all of the botanic garden’s trials, none of the plants was babied. They were mulched and watered when needed, but not fertilized or treated for any insect or disease damage.
Chicago has the same type of soil as we do — heavy clay that doesn’t always drain well in winter. The wet winter soil was the downfall of 44 of the 61 types of veronicas in the trial, which suffered severe damage or plant death.
The garden did offer some tips for growing speedwell:
- Plants grown in anything less than full sun do not bloom well and tend to become lax or develop an open habit.
- A shearing after the first bloom promotes new leaf growth at the base of the plant and encourages late-summer flowers.
- Deadheading, or removing spent flowers, boosts the number of blooms throughout the season.
Those that ranked the best: ‘Fairytale,’ with pale pink flowers; ‘Giles Van Hees,’ pink ‘Ionia Skies,’ pale blue; ‘Blue John,’ with purple blue; ‘Baby Doll,’ pink; ‘Ulster Blue Dwarf,’ purple blue; and V. wormskjoldii, purple blue. The spikey veronicas are a good cut flower.
Christine B. says
I really like ‘Giles Van Hees’ and it is long blooming in bright pink for me here in the frozen north. I’ll have to research the others….
Christine in Alaska