Claire lives near me and follows this blog. She saw two little Lemon Verbena plants at a store this spring, bought them and brought them home. She put both of them in this rectangular pot. And here they are, in the middle of September 2018.
She put them in her back yard, partially shaded by a crepe myrtle bush. In other words, they were not in the full Texas sun all summer. They were situated in partial shade.
Claire saw me at the post office last week and asked what she should do with her plants now, before bringing them into her plant room for the winter. (Lucky Claire... She has an indoor plant room!)
I told her she should prune them back heavily, no matter how mean it may seem. I suggested she cut off the lovely branches, pull off the leaves and dry them overnight at normal air-conditioned room temperature.
Claire admitted she hadn't tried her Lemon Verbena yet. She just likes to smell it. Oh boy, is she in for a treat when she makes some herb tea with her harvest, these leaves drying on a tea towel below.
And I also explained that her little plants will re-grow from the stems, but primarily in a rosette of sprouts around the base of the main stem. The next photo is not Claire's plant. But it shows what I explained will most likely happen to her plants.
The main point of my Lemon Verbena lecture at the post office was this - Lemon Verbena is a bush. Bushes like to be pruned back because it encourages new growth. Lemon Verbena responds well to pruning because it is a bush. Try it! Be brave like Claire and make herb tea with your Lemon Verbena leaf harvest, too!
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