Aspiring veronicas just get no respect!

Veronica gentianoides 'Little Blues'

Why "aspiring"? The adjective is cognate with "spire" and likely "spike": these are the taller veronicas I'm addressing--not the gorgeous dwarf blues. One of the reasons we garden (especially ROCK garden) is that every year brings new surprises--often in spades (so to speak).  You form an opinion (such as "Veronica gentianoides is a bit of a bore"--great for large perennial plantings perhaps, but out of scale for rock gardens...I suppose it was the name that made me pause and buy this plant (a Jelitto introduction by the way, grown by my colleagues for Denver Botanic Gardens plant sale). When it bloomed the first time I was charmed--and it's come back several years a tad more strongly: I've been won over...but then I'm a veronicophile to coin a word.

 

Even "plain old" V. gentianoides can be fetching grown well, as it was in the garden depicted above--in England I reckon. In the common, pale cultivar often encountered.

This picture was taken of V. gentianoides along the pathway of the "old" perennial border at Denver Botanic Gardens (which has been removed a few weeks ago: I wonder if the accession was preserved elsewhere at the Gardens? asks the Senior Curator)...I am one of those old fashioned folk who don't think Libraries should dump books if they haven't been checked out recently, nor should accessions at public gardens be lost without a damn good reason

Veronica spicata 'Icicle'

Much commoner in cultivation one finds the endless permutations of V. spicata--more often in pink and bluish lavender. I'm sure I have a dozen pictures of these I took back in the dark ages on transparencies--you'll have to settle for this one shot. Neither do I find V. incana, which has been lumped with spicata (harrump!) and is growing lustily in a hot spot on the south side of my house--a great plant which somehow I don't seem to have photographed. I'll certainly do so next May!

One of quite a few strange and wonderful veronicas I've grown from seed collected in western Asia by the Czechs over the years. Allied to V. teucrium (a.k.a. V. latfolia) some have persisted: Flora of Turkey, Flora Iranica and my Caucasian wildflower books disgorge such a welter of veronicas I have yet to determine which one it is. I'll spare you pictures of 'Crater Lake'--though I have a killer story about it I may share one day.

Possibly my favorite of the "aspiring" veronicas is this one: V. porphyrantha, photographed here in my garden.

Veronica porphyrantha

And here it is in far Western Mongolia: a striking plant which hasn't entirely settled down in cultivation yet, alas! Although I believe Jelitto has sold seed, so there's no excuse!

Veronica wormskjoldii

I end on Colorado's showiest (alas) veronica--not quite up to Asian standards I fear...and burdened with a name stranger than my own! Now that I look at it, there is a bit of a resemblance to 'Little Blues' that kicked this piece off. Properly photographed it can appear fetching as in Southwest Colorado Wildflowers...well, at least it's ours. As much as I love our native flora, when it comes to Veronica, I'll grow the Eurasian species instead, thank you!

 

 

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