The few good gardens Veronicas we grow are only a small part of the vast entanglement known to botanists, 300 or more of them, among which the majority are weeds. Most of them are inhabitants of the temperate regions where the gardening spirit seems first to have awakened in man.
So these plants early attracted the attention of seekers of beauty as well as that of the early herbalists. Not to be deterred by the plant’s few virtues in the healing arts, those curious folk gave full play to their fancies in other ways.
Myth of the Plant Name Veronica
Instead of merely saying, as the botanist does, that the name was given in honor of St. Veronica, the weavers of fanciful tales have several versions of how that came” about.
Being one of the curious, I have collected several of these legends, but it would take too much space to tell them all, so I shall confine myself to the one which seems most widely circulated. That version makes the lady an inhabitant of Jerusalem while Jesus was on Earth.
It was there that she, touched with compassion when she saw Jesus carrying His cross to Calvary, proffered her kerchief to Him to wipe the perspiration from His brow. After using it, according to legend, Jesus gave it back to her “with the image of His face miraculously upon it.”
It is not apparent from most of the legends why the lady’s name, which also means victorious, was given to our plants, though Ingram tries to find the connection in his “Flora Symbolica” when he says that “from such fancied resemblance in the blossom of this flower to the sacred relic, it was named after its sainted owner.”
Ingrain and others, who make the veronicas or speedwells symbols of fidelity, give us several instances of ancient practices in support of that view, as when he tells us that the Germans “were fond of planting the little blue rock speedwell on their graves, thereby signifying their fidelity to their dead.”
But, he adds, “These bright blue emblems are not meant merely for fidelity to our dear departed ones. They are given to us to love, admire, and make use of.”
Be that as it may, moderns are most interested in veronicas for a large number of good garden plants among them. But not all the three hundred or more kinds are tit for gardens, as anyone who has looked far into them can testify.
I have no idea how many kinds have found their way into my garden, but I know there have been too many; some were little more than weeds.
The good ones, some of which will occupy our attention in the next few paragraphs, have made me forget the others, and I feel fully paid for the labor of sorting out the weeds.
Clump Speedwell
In any list of veronicas, the clump speedwell, V. longifolia subsessilis, usually will be found heading the first column.
That is because of its great beauty and utilityóthe first comes from long thick spires of deep blue flowers during July and August, and the other from its splendid performance, which gives it special value in the summer landscape and as a cut flower.
That high praise does not fit the inferior specimens one often sees and thereby hangs a tale of culture. First, though, let me add a bit of exciting news.
It is reported that soon a pure white form of the clump speedwell will be introduced – something gardeners have long waited for.
To attain top-notch results with this plant calls for a little more than ordinary effort. It requires, first of all, more moisture than the ordinary summer brings to the Middle West, which means the hose must be used during dry weather.
An abundance of moisture in well-drained soil rich in humus, preferably rotted manure, should produce results rivaling the pictures in the catalogs that prompted the plant purchase.
In a cold climate, the plants should be put in a protected place where snow will cover them during the cold months, for this Japanese speedwell cannot stand low temperatures.
If snow is not assured during part of your winter, a good mulch after the ground freezes should carry them through.
The conspiracy of silence that seems to surround our native culver’s-root, which was V. VIRGINICA until some “splitter” made it VERONICASTRUM VIRGINICUM, leaves the impression that it is unworthy of the gardener’s attention, when, in reality, it is one of the best for landscape adornment.
Try it, especially its pure white form, in very rich soil at the back of a border planting, with pale pink phloxes and Michaelmas daisies in front.
If the soil is not too dry, it will grow 4’ or 5’ feet high, its tall white spires lighting and lightening the border all during August and September.
Although usually thought fit only for the wild garden, rightly used and rightly treated, the white culver’s-root is apt to give even the most fastidious a new conception of its value as a garden plant.
Spike Speedwell
The spike speedwell, as usually seen, has little appeal for me as a part of the intimate garden. However, its ability to put on a “blues song” during June and July, regardless of its preparation for the act, gives it value for the unconsidered parts, especially the wild garden.
Be the soil rich or poor, the spiked one goes merrily on its way, and dry weather discourages it not at all.
Its child, BLUE SPIRE, is an improvement, with better-filled spikes of deep blue flowers and a longer blooming season.
It is, I should say, a good plant for dry, sunny situations where an 18-inch plant and blue flowers can be used to advantage. If a slightly taller plant up to 2 feet is indicated, BLUE PETER might be preferred.
Gentian Speedwell
The gentian speedwell, V. GENTIANOIDES, is a plant for which many gardeners have to acquire a liking.
That process is simple, however, and the outcome will surely be in the plant’s favor. It would commence with an admiration for the lovely carpet of gentian-like leaves which it spreads out in any sunny or partly shaded spot assigned to its use.
In May, the plant registers content with what the gardener has done for its comfort by sending aloft foot-tall stems bearing large, pale blue saucers.
Being an inhabitant of moist alpine and subalpine meadows, it needs more water than usually falls on eastern gardens during the summer and therefore appreciates attention from the hose during droughts.
If that is not possible, a home in about half a shade of leafy soil will usually satisfy it.
Wooly Speedwell
Love, at first sight, is generally the rule when one sees the wooly speedwell, V. incana feeling that is engendered by a pleasing mat of white-tomentose leaves and is later intensified by the plant’s easygoing ways and a long blooming period. Under good treatment, blossoming starts in June and lasts into August.
In the type, one gets 9- to 15-inch stems, thickly set with blue-purple flowers, the combination of flower color and white-wooly leaves makes an especially beautiful picture, which is changed to an even more enchanting one when we come to variety ROSEA, by the latter’s soft pink flowers.
Experience will show that the expression “easygoing ways” means all that it implies, including the ability to get along on very little moisture and in almost any soil that is well drained. It does best in the sun but is also quite tolerant of shade.
All of this means that gardeners will find it a most useful plant to carpet dry, sunny areas in border and rock gardens, as an outline plant for beds in formal plantings, as a cut flower, and in other roles.
If one were scientifically inclined, he could spend many pleasant hours trying to unravel the tangle of names and plants which center around a group of speedwells generally known, to gardeners as V. RUPESTRIS, though others may call it V. teucrium, and still others, with the authority of many modern botanists, may call it V. LATIFOLIA.
With a mind leading in other directions, I have never attempted to perform that task; it has not, however, prevented the enjoyment of several beautiful plants which have had their origin in the tangle, so it is said by those who should know, ranging from a little charmer of 2-inch stature, with large china-blue saucers, known variously as:
- RUPESTRIS
- RUPESTRIS NANA
- PROSTRATA
And otherwise, up through the scale to foot-high or taller plants in several shades of blue, white, and pink flowers.
There is something here to complete many of one’s garden pictures both in rock garden and border, including a form usually known in gardens as V. TREHANI, with yellow leaves and blue flowers – a striking combination.
Gray-Leaved Speedwell
Two gray-leaved speedwells, V. CAESPITOSA from Greece and Eastward and V. CANESCENS from New Zealand, are among the most entrancing of the small kinds.
Although the New Zealander is too tender for my severe climate, I have seen enough of him to know that he would delight lovers of tiny plants in sections with milder winters.
He makes a film of threadlike stems and silvery leaves and then hides that tracery under countless silvery blue and white flowers during summer.
Everything about the plant speaks of elegance and daintiness; one might add delicacy, for its frail looks tell the experienced gardener that it cannot stand much abuse.
Judging from behavior here, where it was grown in pans indoors, it wants a perfectly drained, light soil, always with a constant supply of moisture at the roots, and not too cold.
On the other hand, V. CAESPITOSA has been fitted by nature for a wider range of usefulness, being far better able to cope with conditions in the average garden.
Its needs, according to experience here, include good drainage, a requirement that most gray-leaved plants share.
Given that and some leaf mold in its diet to carry it through dry weather, it should make little tufts of gray wool, from which will spring 2-inch stems bearing quite large, rose-pink flowers for six weeks or more, commencing in late May or early June. It wants sunshine or, if the climate is very hot, perhaps the shade of a rock during midday.
Because V. PECTINATA grows so freely at no bother on the gardener’s part, some seem to think it is beneath their notice.
It is about the best gray-leaved (deeply scalloped and wooly) kinds for you and me, who have not the time to coddle plants.
Blue-Leaved Speedwell
In the type, the deep blue flowers are borne abundantly in spring and sparingly through the summer; in variety ROSEA, the flowers are a pleasing shade of bright pink-edged white, giving a silvered effect.
The flowers are always held tightly against the gray mat. Like most wooly plants, it wants good drainage and does especially well in a sunny wall, if not too dry.
I hesitated before mentioning that gallant ramper, V. FILIFORMIS, because some gardeners of my acquaintance have found him so ambitious to please that he has made a nuisance of himself, creeping out into the lawn from the border and rock garden and generally taking matters into his own hands.
There is little reason to fear him, however, in a dry garden, for the task is to keep him happy rather than curb his exuberant spirits.
A light, airy habit and many very pale blue cups on low creeping stems in spring make a plant of inestimable value for clothing, unconsidered spots with a filmy carpet. Among a hundred uses, it will make a good carpenter for small, hardy bulb beds.
The tiny V. REPENS, which is reputedly tender to cold, cannot only stand our northern winters but does it with a smugness that indicates an utter disregard for such trifling matters as a change from snug Corsica to bleak northern Michigan.
Either there, it is said, or here, as I can testify, it goes quietly about the pleasant task of spreading a carpet of tiny, bright green leaves over the surface of the ground in its neighborhood and, in May, sprinkles itself with milk-white to pale blue flowers held tightly against the foliage.
It is then a picture to gladden the heart of any gardener. Rightly situated where it will not suffer from lack of moisture, it will continue, though in a more restrained way, to smile until the cool nights of late summer remind it of the season of stillness ahead.
Quite similar in leafage, though much larger and less densely set on the creeping stems, is V. ALLIONI.
It is also similar in its cultural needs, asking for moisture and sun or part shade. Instead of sitting flat on the foliage, as in the case of V. REPENS, here the violet-blue flowers are carried in 2-inch racemes all during June.
Desirable Speedwell
Well, up on a list of desirable speedwells, one should find V. ARMENIA. I just went over my notes on this plant, collected through the years, and found the following written 16 years ago: “Veronica armena has almost completely escaped the attention of gardeners.” Observation tells me that the same conditions exist today.
And that is to be deplored, for we have one of the best of the small veronicas. The foliage is so finely cut that it rivals the mossy saxifrages in beauty and would be worth growing for that reason alone.
But when, in June, it covers its broad mats with a carpet of lovely bright blue flowers, it is of another world. And all that is to be had by giving it a home in any sunny or lightly shaded spot which is well drained. It seems not particular to the soil so long as it does not get desert-dry.
Only a few of the highlights among the veronicas, and perhaps not the brightest, have been touched in these notes.
I think it is enough to show that this vast genus holds much good garden material, some of it rarely used by gardeners, and that further investigation might be rewarding.
44659 by C Wood