Veronica, Dwarf Spike Speedwell 'Royal Candles'

The cultivar name is 'Glory' US PP 18932, PBR. "Royal Candles" is a US trade name. Same as 'Ulster Blue Dwarf'.

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I have mixed feelings about this plant's performance.

On the one hand, it will bloom nonstop for months if you promptly remove spent flower spikes. Deadheading spent spikes is necessary for it to continue putting out new spikes. The flower color is a very useful saturated blue-violet.

On the other hand, unlike most veronicas, the spikes hold onto spent flowers, so a spike halfway through blooming is half-violet, half-brown. The brown is conspicuously ugly. The only way to remove the brown is to cut the spike off long before it's finished blooming. Most other veronicas are self-cleaning and don't have this problem. (You still have to cut off finished spikes in order to extend the season of bloom, but at least the spikes don't grow untidy before they're finished.)

I say, thumbs down. There are too many other good veronicas out there without this problem to put up with this one.

I purchased this plant at a nursery one year ago, not in bloom. When I pulled it out of the pot, the strangled root system was a shocker...Read More. There was almost no soil to be seen, just roots. I sliced right down the middle with my gardening knife and planted both pieces near each other, adding a ton of my own compost to the planting holes. It recovered and bloomed well. It is now emerging from its winter dormancy. I look forward to the vivid blue-purple spires. Zone 6 southeast PA

In Northern New Jersey Veronica spicata 'Royal Candles' (PP18932) is highly attractive to whitefly infestation but don’t appear to be h...Read Morearmed by the whiteflies. However, nearby plants such as Hibiscus mutabilis, and possibly other Hibiscus, are damaged by the whiteflies. Depending on locality be prepared to deal with whiteflies. The plant itself is very pretty and grows well; it is the uninvited dinner guests which are the problem.

Abundant violet flowers that seem to glow. However, plants in my garden are prone to fungal blights...benefits from a regime of systemic...Read More fungicides and sulfer.