Kevin, that does look very nice. And I wouldn't have guessed that the above picture was for a last flush of flowers...good enough for me as a first go!

Can you compare and contrast it with Veronica "Royal Candles"?

rouge

Here's Royal Candles today - not a very good photo.

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I would say RC is around 9 inches tall and SBB is currently around 15 inches tall, but during the summer at its peak, it probably grows to about 18 inches tall which is something I like.

Kevin

I have to admit your SBB is a very nice specimen. Unfortunately, my experience with this plant has been quite the opposite.

Blue borders does great in my garden too. It is a bee magnet and is still developing new flower stems this late in the season.

If mine looked like yours, I wouldn't have pulled it up! Especially because IIRC the bumblebees loved it. It bloomed great the first year and after that got less vigorous until it was stunted and ugly.

I'm thinking of getting these this year. I'm trying to create a bee garden, and every year I see these and want them and never get them. I tried I think it was called "Icicle" veronica and it got really nasty looking. There wasn't much sign of life, so we got rid of it. We are going to put some clay breaker down because there is some clay in that area. Hopefully that will help some of the drainage.

"Icicle" is still on my evaluation list. I've had it for a couple of years and like it, but it has a tendency to flop terribly for me from the center outwards. It also hasn't been a very good rebloomer after the first flush of flowers. I'm going to try pinching it back earlier in the season this year to see if I can reduce it's height a bit and hopefully control the flopping.

Kevin