So this story will new to some, but not all.

So last year I purchased a lemon verbena. It looked neat and it certainly smelled good. I had no problems with this plant all summer, except a few times during the super hot days when it needed lots of water.

So I harvested leaves for tea when I wanted some and dried some for later. The fall is fast coming by this time. I can't really remember when the 40 degree and below temps started, but I left the plant outside. I figured it was like most perennial plants. That it'd "die" and go nicely into hibernation until spring,right?

Well, almost...so the thing finally "died" and I cut it back and brought it in before the snows. I live an apartment so it was of course potted. It stayed "dead" until about January, then it started to have little shoots of new growth. Needless to say I was a bit confused, because I hadn't watered it nor do I own any grow lights of any kind. I may have also pinched some of the new shoots off. I don't quite remember.

So like I said it's January in Nebraska. It's COLD and snowy and generally miserable. A few months pass and I decide it's time to go outside, it looks good out there. So my plant should be OK?

OH NO. We get a nasty surprise frost. It stops my poor, chopped plant dead or so I thought at the time. I was pretty bummed while I was telling Moss about this, when she told me that a verbena is supposed to look like a little tree and me chopping it low did it no favors.

So now I've got a sad, dead verbena, but I'm refusing to toss it. Why you ask? Well, when I cut into the some of the stems that were still long enough to cut, it wasn't dead. Some life was still there. I left it alone. The naked dead thing just hung out on my deck...then roots started growing out the bottom of the pot, but no new shoots or leaves.

I re-potted it and it came back! Although I still think it's suffering a bit from it's earlier treatment as I did not harvest from it this year. But this time I will not chop it down, because it is not a lemon balm which can easily take that clipping and come back the next year!