{"id":700,"date":"2011-05-01T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2011-05-01T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=700"},"modified":"2011-01-02T18:04:36","modified_gmt":"2011-01-02T23:04:36","slug":"light-a-candle-in-your-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2011\/05\/01\/light-a-candle-in-your-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Light a Candle in Your Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_701\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Veronica-Giles-van-Hees-3.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-701\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-701\" title=\"Veronica 'Giles van Hees' (3)\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Veronica-Giles-van-Hees-3-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Veronica-Giles-van-Hees-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Veronica-Giles-van-Hees-3-1024x685.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-701\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#39;Giles van Hees&#39; veronica<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Speedwells (<em>Veronica <\/em>spp.) are long-blooming, easy-care perennials. Speedwells are outstanding for their color rich floral candles (spikes). The candle-like flowers rise like sentinels in the late spring-summer garden and\u00a0attract lots of butterflies and bees.<\/p>\n<p>The small individual 5- pedaled blossoms range in colors from white, pink, blue, and several shades of purple. The floral spikes open at the base and continue upward. Cultivar sizes vary, making veronicas a great choice as the front, middle or back border in any flower bed. Personal picks include<em> V<\/em>. \u2018Giles Van Hees\u2019 (6- inch bright pink spikes) and <em>V.<\/em> \u2018Royal Candles\u2019 (15-inch blue-purple spikes).<\/p>\n<p>Speedwells belong in full sun, planted in a moist, well-drained soil. Soggy soils may lead to a root rot and foliar mildew diseases. Summer irrigation and mulching aids to conserve soil moisture and suppress weed competition.<\/p>\n<p>Quick removal of the old flower spikes (deadheading) encourages growth of new basal foliage and almost continuous flowering through the summer months. Pruning back taller cultivars by one-third reduces the need for staking plants. Dividing perennial crowns every 2-3 years in early spring maintains overall \u00a0plant vigor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speedwells (Veronica spp.) are long-blooming, easy-care perennials. Speedwells are outstanding for their color rich floral candles (spikes). The candle-like flowers rise like sentinels in the late spring-summer garden and\u00a0attract lots of butterflies and bees. The small individual 5- pedaled blossoms range in colors from white, pink, blue, and several shades of purple. The floral spikes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[551,625,601],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/700\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}