Verbena stricta – Hoary Vervain

This wildflower should be more widely used in gardens. It’s a tough, drought-tolerant plant with strong stems and a narrowly vertical habit. The stiff, oval leaves are jaggedly toothed and covered with a white pubescence that gives the plants a gray-green cast. Flowers are borne on tall, vertical spikes from the upper axils over much of the summer. They are fairly large and intensely colored, and the plants have a refined appearance that lends them to use in borders as well as naturalizing.