Things You'll Need:
- Plants
- Pots, hangers, boxes or garden
- Hand trowels and gardening gloves
- General garden (5-10-5) fertilizer
- Water
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Step 1
Annual "lobelia erinus" is a favorite, carefree form of this versatile plant group.Use "Edging Lobelia" (lobelia erinus) in the garden as an edging plant along walks and borders. This delicate native of South Africa provides "pop" in the garden, in pots and in window boxes and grows best in cool weather. Edging lobelia is an annual and may re-seed itself in the fall. Plant seeds in fall for spring bloom. Since seeds require specific conditions and take up to 20 days to germinate, you will probably prefer to buy these popular, easy-to-grow plants in shades of blue, white and pinks at garden centers. Keep them out of direct sun in hot weather---they grow most aggressively and blossom most profusely in part shade and cool weather.
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Step 2
Great Blue is a common woodland flowerPlant "Great Blue" (lobelia siphilitica) in garden borders. This North American native is perennial in growing zones 4 to 8. Like its more delicate cousin erinus, it has lance-shaped leaves and blue flowers but unlike edging lobelia who wanders, Great Blue lobelia blooms on an upright stalk, or raceme, above a mound of flowers. Use Great Blue in a woodland garden or marshy spot in a border. These native specimen plants prefer partial shade and do not tolerate full sun or high heat well.
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Step 3
Cardinal Flower loves boggy or riverside locations.Enlist "Cardinal Flower" (lobelia cardinalis) to attract butterflies but place it carefully---its brilliant red flowers will out shine other reds. This flower and scarlet "Bee Balm" monarda are two of the most reliable butterfly and hummingbird attractors for the mid-summer garden. Plant it in part shade near rivers, streams or "water features." Another North American native perennial, it flourishes in boggy or marshy areas and will tolerate full sun for part of the day. Its growth habit is similar to Great Blue lobelia and flowers have the same two-part shape as any lobelia. Cardinal flower sports longer lower parts in more tubular flowers than other lobelias.
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Step 4
Lobelia inflata is also called "pukeweed" for its emetic qualities.Incorporate "Indian Tobacco" (lobelia inflata) in wildflower gardens in its eastern North American range. Its natural habitat is pastures, meadows and cultivated fields, so it's a good choice for areas requiring more sun and drought-tolerant plants than its American cousins. Like many wildflowers, it is biennial in habit---it takes two years to flower but re-seeds itself if you've planted it in the "right" place. Indian tobacco is available in many garden centers; it grows from a mound of lance-shaped flowers, putting up a raceme of tubular white flowers in late summer. It grows taller than its cousins---up to 3 feet tall---but its blooms are smaller and less showy. Its seed pods and milky sap was used by native peoples for herbal cures from skin salve to emetics.
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Step 5
Lobelia aberdarica grows on a Kenyan mountainside.Try more exotic lobelias if your garden is in a tropical or alpine region. The Giant Lobelia and lobelia telekii flourish on the cool mountainsides of eastern Africa. Those with tropical gardens might consider startling Hawaiian native lobelias. Wherever you garden, there is a lobelia that can match your garden's conditions.
