It is spring in Australia and New Zealand and looks like it in Columbus, Georgia, thanks to a little planting in early September. One plant that is catching my eye every day is the award-winning Superbena Royale Plum Wine verbena.

The last time I gave this plant any press was when magenta was the Pantone Color of the Year. It is a color that commands attention.

Superbena Royale Plum Wine is strong enough to stand on its own, but acts like one of the crown jewels in mixed container and basket recipes. Your first inclination may be to combine it with shades of pink or white like the Pinwheels recipe that has Supertunia Lovie Dovie and Whirlwind White scaevola.

Perhaps you want to go a little bolder with the Supertunia Mini Vista Yellow and Supertunia Bordeaux with the Proven Winners recipe called New Orleans.

But Proven Winners has another shocking, gaudy and wonderful recipe featuring Superbena Royale Plum Wine verbena. Superbells Double Yellow calibrachoa and Sunsatia Blood Orange nemesia. It was this recipe that told me there is indeed something special about the magenta color and of Superbena Royale Plum Wine and orange. Hence, this fall I planted it with Luscious Marmalade lantana.

BINGO!

I have also added Supertunia Vista Jazzberry and Supertunia Mini Vista Ultramarine petunias. It indeed is like a fall garden flowerfest of color.

Another mix I am trying is Superbena Royale Plum Wine verbena with Superbena Peachy Keen Verbena that has an orange stage, and the hot new Supertunia Vista Cool Jazz petunia that to me is a light lavender blue. I love it!

Superbena Royale Plum Wine has a mounding habit and reaches 12 inches tall with a 24-inch spread, hence the "Royale" designation. Superbena Cobalt as a comparison gets the same 12 inches in height with a wider 30-inch spread. There are two more "Royale" varieties, Superbena Royale Romance and Superbena Royale Iced Cherry.

The Superbena Verbena series needs plenty of sun. Oddly I am entering the time of the year that I have the most sun. I have trees overhead, and now the angle of the sun is perfect, and the trees protect during radiative freezes.

Verbenas like the Superbenas do best in fertile well-drained soil. I say that a lot in these columns, meaning that if you have tight compact clay or sand, you have a little work to do.

This is where the raised bed planting mixes put you on an easy street. Pay attention the next time you see a commercial landscape company preparing a bed at an office complex or shopping center. This also will allow you to evade the No. 1 enemy of most plants: poor drainage.

The Superbena Royale Plum Wine is like all the Superbenas: They are pollinator champs. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds will visit in their season. There is nothing prettier than an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on a Superbema Royale Plum Wine verbena blossom.

You will love how the Superbena Royale Plum Wine verbena transforms all your containers into works of art.

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(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)

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