Lemon Verbena

Aloysia triphylla

If you love lemon flavor, make room for lemon verbena in your garden. Grown in a pot, this fragrant beauty will maintain a tidy size. In the ground, it forms a luxuriously lemony shrub. Packed with delicious citrus flavor, thinly sliced leaves add zest and aroma to fish, salads, and steamed vegetables. Stuff a jar with lemon verbena leaves, fill it with water, and sit it in the sun to brew a refreshing tea for summer sipping. For hot tea by the cup, steep 1/2 cup of leaves in 1 cup hot water. Transform cookies or cakes into lemony treats by mixing bruised lemon verbena leaves into sugar the night before baking. Strain out leaves prior to mixing recipe.

In the garden, lemon verbena benefits from formative pruning. In spring and as needed throughout the growing season, snip branch tips and entire stems to keep the plant shaped and in bounds. Grow plants in light shade in southernmost gardens.

Light: Part sun, Sun

Type: Herb, Shrub

Height: Under 6 inches to 8 feet

Width: To 6 feet wide

Flower color: Pink, White

Seasonal features: Fall bloom, Summer bloom

Problem solvers: Deer restistant, Slope/Erosion Control

Special features: Good for containers, Low maintenance

Zones: 9-10

How to Grow Lemon Verbena

Growing lemon verbena is not too difficult. The lemon verbena herb is a sensitive one, preferring warmth to cold and having a high water requirement. Lemon verbena seeds or cuttings are used when you want to generate a new plant. In other words, you can propogate the plant or grow it fresh from the seeds.

The cuttings of lemon verbena plants can be placed in a jar of water while you wait for new roots to form. Once they form, wait a few weeks for a good root structure to exist before planting the plant into soil. Once you see some good roots, you can plant it in a container with normal potting soil or outdoors if you live in a warm climate.