(Verbascum chaxii) We have a 10+ year-old Phoenician Mullein plant in our home garden whose emergence brings me so much joy every spring, it feels like an old friend coming back to visit each year. Like most in its genus, it starts as a rosette of deeply textured leaves before reaching for the sky with tall slender flower spikes. While the plant is quite substantial in appearance, its beauty rewards those who lean in for a close examination. Each small five-petaled white flower on the spike has the most exquisite stamens we’ve ever seen, super-fuzzy, mauve filaments topped with contrasting bright orange anthers. Its drought tolerant with a lovely architecture for cottage gardens and just buzzes with bees and other beneficial insects. We couldn’t find seed to grow a crop from for several years and when we did, we found it to contain a percentage of yellow-flowered variants. Our seed was saved exclusively from the white flowering form we prefer, but it still might throw some yellows. Grows to 5’ and flowers the first year if started early. Hardy perennial to zone 5. UO
