Veronicastrum

A fashionable genus of trouble free, long lived perennials for the mid to late summer. All require a retentive soil in full or part sun. Much used in recent years as part of Piet Oudolf's style of planting. All form a useful vertical, erect plant with whorls of leaves arranged around stiff stems, each being terminated with a flower spike.

The elegant spikes of Veronicastrum provide much the same to garden insects as the related Veronica species, but in enhanced quantities because of the length of the spikes. Bees, flies, ladybirds and butterflies are all frequent visitors, from mid- to late-summer according to species.