Lemon Verbena

[clouddweller]

Help! I have a lemon verbena that is not doing very well - planted in a pot since Saturday and already looking curled and dry, despite lots of water. Any advice?

[FLOrenze]

I this the plant where the leaves taste like sherbert lemons. If it is then it likes to be kept dry.

[onedayiwillmissthis]

I had a lemon verbena once...now I have many many many lemon verbena self seeded everywhere! Am constantly having to pull them out

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Check for aphids/greenfly on the underneath of the green leaves - they'll suck all the sap out of a leaf and cause it to go dry and crispy.

My experience is it doesn't like the soil to dry out - the leaves droop very quickly.

Don't give up on it - the chances are that it will re-sprout from the base.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

the chances are that it will re-sprout from the base. - if not this year then next spring.

[cardamoncoffee]

Sorry no advice but for those who are experienced with lemon verbena, do you overwinter it indoors or does is manage outside in winter?

[babba2014]

Lemon verbena likes water but it needs good free drainage. It doesn't like being water logged but is a thirsty plant.

It always does better in the ground. They struggle more in pots. As soon as I planted mine it looked much better and now has multiplied like crazy.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Sorry no advice but for those who are experienced with lemon verbena, do you overwinter it indoors or does is manage outside in winter? Depends where you are. It wouldn't overwinter outside in the N. Or, based on what Babba says, in a clay soil.

[didireallysaythat]

Verbena doesn't over winter in East Anglia - struggles in a green house.

@onedayiwillmissthis how do you get lemon verbena to self seed? Lemon balm grows like a weed but I find verbena a harder to keep going

[SeaRabbit]

I love LV and have four. The one planted in the ground is definitely the happiest. I usually put the ones in pots in the garage over winter, and as they are very late to come into leaf always think I've lost them, but I haven't. Such elegant plants.

Lemon balm on the other hand is a thug. I've been trying to eradicate it since we moved in 9 years ago, and still some pops up from time to time.

Does anyone know if they used either of them to give lemon flavour to food in wartime cooking? It seems an obvious thing to do but they don't seem to have used many herbs to give flavour in the recipes I've seen.

[cardamoncoffee]

SeaRabbit do you prepare the one in the ground for the winter by fleecing or using a cloche?

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Does anyone know if they used either of them to give lemon flavour to food in wartime cooking? I've stayed in a Portuguese B&B where she used lemon balm to flavour the "eggy bread" that was a delightful addition to breakfast (just in case the bread, ham, assorted jams, and fresh soft cheese with local honey wasn't enough to keep us going).

[SeaRabbit]

Cardamom no I just leave it. It is against a west-facing wall, mind.

I do make an excellent lemon verbena drizzle cake with 1 Tablespoon of finely chopped LV in it, along with the grated rind of a lemon. I misread a Hugh Fearnley Whittinstall recipe - the Tbsp was meant to go in the drizzle bit but I put it into the cake instead. It makes a delicious and very pretty cake, speckled green.

[SeaRabbit]

I meant to say LV eggy bread sounds very good.

[Cyw2018]

My lemon verbena looks a bit worse for wear since I showed my toddler that if she picks it and rubs it between her fingers it smells amazing.

Not much of the plant left now!!!

[IrenetheQuaint]

Mine survives the winter every year, in London.

Will have to try making the lemon verbena drizzle cake!

[cardamoncoffee]

We use LV in green tea with mint, it's also boiled on its own and drank for stomach pains. I will definitely be trying the cake.