Speedwell

Speedwell (Veronica) - A large family very variable in structure and appearance. Many are trailing or carpet plants, with flowers mostly of a blue shade, but sometimes rose or dull white; others are vigorous perennials with rigid flower-spikes of similar colors; while a third group, mainly from New Zealand, are evergreen shrubs ranging in height from a few inches to many feet, and most variable in character. It happens that in all these classes plants of the same species differ so much that their correct naming is difficult. Forming two such wholly distinct groups, we shall describe the shrubby New Zealand kinds and the herbaceous perennials in classes apart.

With the exception of two or three kinds these are all from New Zealand, where they form a large part of the vegetation, completely covering the hillsides in many places. Few shrubs are more easily increased and grown than many of these shrubby Speed-wells, and hence their wide use in our gardens, in spite of the fact that few are fully hardy inland, and that with every hard winter thousands perish. But it is so easy to hold cuttings in reserve, and young plants so quickly repair these losses, that occasional destruction is less serious than it would be with many other plants. The smaller kinds, drawn from greater elevations, are less tender than the leafy shrubs of the coast region; they carry small tough leaves, often Box-like, and, being hardy in all save the coldest winters, are for their distinct color and neat growth valuable in the rock garden. They are somewhat more particular as to soil and position than the larger-leaved kinds, preferring ground that is open and well drained. These kinds merge into an alpine group found at a considerable elevation, at which likeness to their fellows is largely lost, the tiny trees (for such they are) appearing like Heaths, Conifers, or mosses. Though beautiful and of great interest, these little plants seldom thrive inland, though they flourish in seaside gardens.

At the seaside few plants are more useful than the large shrubby Veronicas, which fear neither winds nor salt spray. Cuttings of the young shoots root easily at almost any season, while many kinds seed freely and sow themselves in the border. The mountain kinds mostly flower in early summer, and are then attractive, but many of the larger kinds bloom best in autumn and winter, proving of value for cutting and for greenhouse decoration at a dull season, the colors of the newer named varieties being a great advance on the mauves and purples of past days.

The following are the most distinct of the shrubby kinds:—

Speedwell Pictures

Veronica americana Schwein. ex Benth. - American speedwell

Veronica anagallis-aquatica L. - water speedwell

Veronica anagallis-aquatica L. - water speedwell

Veronica anagallis-aquatica L. - water speedwell

Veronica anagallis-aquatica L. - water speedwell

Veronica cusickii Gray - Cusick's speedwell

Veronica Hybrids

Named Hybrids - All these have come from three or four kinds—Salicifolia, elliptica, speciosa—crossed, recrossed, and selected, until the precise parentage has been lost. V. Andersoni was one of the earliest, and other old kinds are Blue Gem, an old favourite of compact growth and nearly always in bloom; Celestial, light blue; Imperial, crimson-purple; Jardin Fleuri, deep carmine; Mme. Chretien Merveille, purple; Marie Antoinette, pink; Purple Queen, rich purple, the flowers slightly fragrant; Reine des Bleues, deep blue; and Ville de Hyeres, a very hardy kind with crimson flowers. There are other kinds with variegated foliage, beside the yellow-leaved form of V. Andersoni, the best being Arc-en-ciel, with striped foliage and deep red flowers; and Silver Star, a neat dwarf shrub in which the leaves pass from yellow to silvery-white, effective as an edging in warm soils. The newer kinds are Autumn Glory, a bushy plant with small purplish leaves and violet-blue flowers in autumn and winter; Bolide, with red flowers and a good habit; Conquete, white and mauve; Coquette, very long pale lilac spikes; Daimant, crimson-purple; Evaline, soft pink with prominent white anthers; Fleur de Roses, white; Gauntletti, with very long spikes of salmon-pink; La Seduisante, dark magenta-purple with white anthers; Le Merveilleux, bright mauve; Meldensis, light purple; Mont Blanc, pure white; Mont Rosa, rosy-pink; Newryensis, rosy-grey flowers in spring; Queen of Whites, white tinged mauve; Redruth, rich red; Snowflake, long spikes of pure white; Valiere, bright violet with white anthers; and Vulcan, rich claret-red with reddish-green foliage.

Among dwarfer kinds, V. verbenacea, V. fruticulosa, V. alpina, V. aphylla, V. nummularia, V. Guthrieana, V. austriaca, V. ineisa, V. bellidioides, and V. Dabneyi are suited for a rock garden. The pink variety of V. officinalis forms dense patches of pink blossoms, sometimes raised 3 inches above the ground. These mentioned are so hardy that they may be divided or moved at all seasons. Such kinds as V. longifolia need frequent division to prevent crowding. Most kinds ripen and sow their own seed, and the seedlings vary in color and form.

Related Flowers

Germander Speedwell

Germander Speedwell (Named Hybrids Chamaedrys) - Used for covering beds where late-flowering bulbs are grown. A curious variety, named pedunculata, is quite distinct, and a neat plant with white flowers.

Veronica Amplexicaulis

Veronica Amplexicaulis - A low, erect, or semi-trailing shrub, its stout branches densely set with grey stem-clasping leaves. The white flowers appear as short dense spikes studded with blue anthers.

Veronica Andersoni

Veronica Andersoni - Stout leafy shrub raised as a hybrid, and most useful near the sea, though tender even there in hard winters. The hills round Queenstown Harbour were once covered with this shrub—plants 8 feet high and 20 feet in diameter—yet all perished in one cold season. There are several varieties with flowers in shades of blue, lilac, and crimson, and one with variegated leaves.

Veronica Bidwillii

Veronica Bidwillii - A little creeping shrub, spreading carpet-like beside the mountain streams of its own land, and changing into sheets of pink, white, or pale violet flowers in July. It is best in the upper part of the rock garden, where its neat leaves are attractive the year through, and unhurt in any ordinary winter.

Veronica Catarractae

Veronica Catarractae - A slender, much-branched shrub of 1 to 2 feet, with long, narrow, pointed leaves, evenly serrate at the edges, and large white flowers in July.

Veronica Chathamica

Veronica Chathamica - Makes dense trailing cushions of glossy-green glaucous leaves, efwith close cone-shaped flower clusters of pale mauve or rosy-purple fading to white. There is a distinct form called minor. Chatham Islands.

Veronica Colensoi

Veronica Colensoi - A variable little shrub running into several other kinds by intermediate forms. It is one of the best for the rock garden, hardy, with narrow stemless leaves, tapering towards the base, and dense clusters of pure white flowers from every leaf axil during June and July.

Veronica Cupressoides

Veronica Cupressoides - One of the strangest of the alpine kinds resembling Conifers. This is like a little Cypress, with slender, bright green branches rising erect from 2 to 4 feet, bearing pale violet flowers in small clusters at the tips of the shoots. It is fully hardy and grows best on light gritty soils of fair depth, overlaid with flat stones to retain moisture.

Veronica Diosmaefolia

Veronica Diosmaefolia - A dainty little shrub, but tender. The leaves are borne in pretty flatly-spreading sprays, and taper sharply to each end; the flowers are white with pink anthers, opening in June. It is useful under glass in winter, and bears gentle forcing.

Veronica Elliptica

Veronica Elliptica - The only tree-like species, growing 30 feet high in parts of South America and New Zealand. In the mildest parts of Britain (Scilly Isles and Isle of Man) it also reaches a large size, flowering almost continuously even in winter. The leaves are narrow, closely set, and bright green; the flowers white, rather large, and fragrant.

Veronica Epacridea

Veronica Epacridea - A pretty little shrub, tender, not easily grown, and shy in flower, yet charming where it thrives. The rigid much-branched shoots are very like those of an Epacris, with leaves dark, glossy, and curving upwards. Though small, the flowers last a long while, and once established on the rock garden few shrubs are more interesting.

Veronica Glauco-Caerulea

Veronica Glauco-Caerulea - A choice hardy plant about a foot high, with neat oblong leaves barely half an inch long, bluish-grey with purple edges, and borne on dark purple stems. The bright blue flowers are beautiful, and it is one of the most charming of hardy shrubs for the rock garden. V. canterburiensis is like this, save in its lively shining green color and its white flowers with blue anthers.

Veronica Hectori

Veronica Hectori - Belongs to the alpine group from the mountain tops. Its stems are like green and polished whipcord, upon which the leaves appear as tiny scales. It is of slow growth, standing only a few inches high, while the white or rosy flowers are seldom seen even in its own land. It does best in gritty soil, and, though hardy, needs care as to soil and position. Cuttings of this kind root slowly and with difficulty.

Veronica Hulkeana

Veronica Hulkeana - One of the most charming of Veronicas, tender save in the milder parts of Britain and in warm nooks near the sea, and even then best against walls where shelter can be given from late frosts. A light soil and partial shade are the best conditions, resulting in a free growth several feet in height, with oval notched leaves and many spikes of pale lilac flowers in May.

Veronica Kirkii

Veronica Kirkii - A tall, handsome, shrub, fairly hardy near the sea, with fresh green leaves, narrowly lance-shaped, set on dark polished stems. The graceful spikes of white or pale mauve flowers, 4 to 8 inches long, appear only on large plants during early summer, and are highly useful for cutting.

Veronica Lavaudiana

Veronica Lavaudiana - A small prostrate shrub about 8 inches high, with stout trailing branches set with glossy pink-edged leaves, and bearing large white, rosy, or purple flowers in May. It is charming in the rock garden, of rather slow growth, and perishes in a hard winter.

Veronica Loganioides

Veronica Loganioides - Belongs to the class of alpine conifer-like Veronicas, though the tiny leaves hug the stems less closely than in other kinds, and the clustered white flowers are so abundant in a good season as to hide all else.

Veronica Lyalli

Veronica Lyalli - A slender trailing shrub of dense habit, less than a foot high, and rooting where the stems touch the soil. These are closely set with firm leathery leaves, variable as to shape and size, with serrate edges and more or less pointed. The flower-stalks start from every leafaxil, bearing lax sprays of rather large pale mauve flowers, prettily veined. It is one of the most constant in flower, and ripens seed freely.

Veronica Lycopodioides

Veronica Lycopodioides - A tiny creeping shrub hardly rising above the ground, its angular stems sheeted in dark green scale-like leaves, and like a club moss. It fails in the south, but is a pretty rock plant for N. Britain, flowering freely in a good year.

Veronica Macrantha

Veronica Macrantha - Bears the largest flowers, and is one of the most beautiful of the group, covering large tracts of its native mountains at an elevation of 3000 to 6000 feet. It is a rigid little shrub about 2 feet high, with bright green leaves toothed at the edges and many pure white flowers an inch across.

Veronica Pinguifolia

Veronica Pinguifolia - Of dense growth, it nestles happily amongst rock garden plants, its intense glaucous color effective. The white flowers with purple stamens are borne in crowded spikes, and never fail to appear in early summer. This kind and its immediate allies are among the hardiest of shrubby Veronicas. V. decumbens comes near this, and is of prostrate habit with black polished stems, bright green instead of glaucous leaves, and larger flowers with rosy anthers.

Veronica Salicifolia

Veronica Salicifolia - A fast-growing shrub of graceful habit, with narrow glossy leaves 2 to 6 inches long, and bluish-purple or white flowers in slender tapering spikes. It is not only most variable as a species, with many wild forms, but has been crossed freely with other kinds. Vs. macrocarpa and parviflora come so near this as to seem only extreme forms of it. The variety with pure white flowers is the best, and one of the most charming of seaside shrubs, tender inland.

Veronica Speciosa

Veronica Speciosa - The best known of shrubby Veronicas, of rapid growth, with leafy stems, a freely branching habit, and showy mauve or purple flowers fading to white. The early forms, with their crude colors, are now replaced by named varieties due to crossing and selection, and among the most beautiful and easily grown of flowering shrubs for autumn and winter.

Veronica Traversi

Veronica Traversi - One of the hardiest of the group, often resisting for years even in cold midland gardens. Its regular leaves and rounded outline are not graceful, but as a town shrub and one that thrives well on chalk it has some merits, and is useful for cutting in winter, but never quite liking the shrub I got rid of it.

Named Hybrids Gentianoides

Named Hybrids Gentianoides - One of the earliest of the Speedwells, and flowers in May. Three forms are common—the type with grey flowers, a variety with white flowers and bright glossy leaves like the Gentianella, and another with handsome variegated leaves. All are worth growing.

Named Hybrids Incana

Named Hybrids Incana - Also called V. candida, is a dwarf plant with silvery leaves, and dark rich purple flowers. It is used with good effect in bedding, its grey leaves being a contrast to most other foliage. A form of this named elatior has spikes of twice the normal length. V. neglecta is similar but inferior. Division.

Named Hybrids Pectinata

Named Hybrids Pectinata - A pretty trailing kind, with serrated downy leaves and blue or rosy flowers. It is well suited for dry spots in the rock garden, the margins of borders, and other places.

Named Hybrids Prostrata

Named Hybrids Prostrata - A very dwarf plant, which is really a form of V. Teucrium, but commonly known under this name or as V. rupestris. There are varieties with rose-colored and white flowers, which appear in early summer, the type being deep blue, hardy and pretty, blooming so freely that the spreading tufts 4 inches high are often quite obscured by the flowers. C. and S. Europe; on stony hills and dry grassy places.

Named Hybrids Repens

Named Hybrids Repens - Clothes the soil with a soft carpet of bright green foliage, covered in spring with pale bluish flowers. It thrives well on moderately dry soil, but delights in moist corners of the rock garden. There is a variety with white flowers.

Named Hybrids Satureioides

Named Hybrids Satureioides - One of the best of the Speedwells, though somewhat rare, with flowers about the size of those of V. saxatilis, of the same intense blue, and in abundant upright racemes.

Named Hybrids Saxatilis

Named Hybrids Saxatilis - A native of alpine rocks in various parts of Europe, and also a few places in Scotland. It forms neat trailing tufts 6 or 8 inches high, the flowers little more than 1/2 inch across, of a pretty blue, striped with violet, and with a narrow but decided ring of crimson near the bottom of the cup, the base of which is pure white.

Named Hybrids Spicata

Named Hybrids Spicata - A dwarf native plant, not more than 5 or 6 inches high, useful for bare corners of rock gardens, but seldom flowering before the end of July. V. corymbosa is a name given to varieties of two or three species, but the best seems to be a form of V. spicata, with deep blue flowers. It is one of the best plants for rock gardens, being profuse and continuous in bloom. V. hybrida is generally classed as a variety of it, but seems quite distinct, since it is far more robust, and its flowers vary in color from dark purple to lavender and light rose. It grows wild in profusion on mountain limestone hills near Llandudno and in other of the north-western counties.

Named Hybrids Spuria

Named Hybrids Spuria - Is 12 to 18 inches high, but should be cut down in autumn, as it trails untidily. In June it produces many terminal racemes of bluish-purple blossoms. Syn., V. amethystina.

Named Hybrids Subsessilis

Named Hybrids Subsessilis - Best of the hardy Veronicas, and flourishes in spite of spring frosts and cold summers. Its large dense spikes of deep purple-blue flowers are effective, and it should always have a position among the choicest hardy flowers in a good deep loamy soil and open situation. Japan. Readily increased by cuttings in spring.

Named Hybrids Taurica

Named Hybrids Taurica - A dwarf, wiry, and almost woody species from Tauria, forming neat dark green tufts, under 3 inches high; its fine Gentian-blue flowers borne abundantly. It is, perhaps, the neatest kind for forming spreading tufts, in level spots of the rock garden, or drooping from chinks, and for association with the dwarfest alpine plants. Division or cuttings. Syn., V. orientalis var. tenuifolia.

Named Hybrids Teucrium

Named Hybrids Teucrium - A Continental plant, which forms spreading masses from 8 to 12 inches high, covered in early summer with flowers of an intense blue, at first in dense racemes which lengthen progressively. It is excellent for the rock garden or borders, and grows freely in any soil. Seeds or division.