The 'Total Eclipse' story starts back in 1997, when Jan Verschoor set the ball rolling to create a whole new series of Veronicas.  

Veronica 'Total Eclipse' showing off its handsome dark features in a production field in The Netherlands.

By crossing a number of established favourites together with some of his own seedlings and continuing the selection process for a few years, Jan was eventually able to introduce the varieties that comprise the Harmony Series. These selections were based on common criteria such as having a lot of flowers, a compact and uniform habit, and harmonious colouring of flowers and foliage together.  

The success of these Harmony series varieties such as 'Fairytale', 'Baby Doll' and 'Purpleicious' led to an increased level of interest from the horticulture industry as to what other treasures Jan might have lurking among his selections.

As it happened, Jan knew that he was harbouring the darkest Veronica he'd ever seen, yet interest was low until some American visitors with keen eyes turned up at the nursery and confirmed it was indeed also the darkest Veronica they'd ever seen. The deal was made with Darwin PlantSpotters and Veronica 'Total Eclipse' was put into production for gardeners around the world to enjoy.

As well as being the darkest variety known to date, V. 'Total Eclipse' is also an ideal size to grow in a container.

Veronica 'Total Eclipse' is the result of crossing V. longifolia 'Blue John' with a V. spicata seedling. It has midnight-violet flowers over dark-green foliage and achieves a mature size of about 13" / 35cm. It flowers a little later than Jan's other Harmony series varieties, thereby extending the blooming season as well as the Veronica colour pallet.