How to Grow Lobelia Erinus

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment, we're going to learn all about how to grow lobelia erinus. It's a great bedding annual that comes up and blooms all summer long. It's great in hanging baskets or along a wall or on a rock garden. Gorgeous purple flowers -- it's a beautiful plant that's from South Africa. So bedding lobelia or edging lobelia, lobelia erinus, is from South Africa, and it is a small, long flowering perennial, and it's treated as an annual. So you can start them as a...seeds in the spring, let them bloom all summer, and then just save the seeds and then plant them in the spring again. And they're only hearty from zones nine to eleven, so they will not make it in colder climates over the winter. But in warmer climates, you can leave them in the ground, and they'll just come back and bloom all winter long as well. So they're dense mounds, so they grow very tight together, and the masses have small flowers that come in blue, mauve, and purple. Lobelia really need full, hot sun. They don't like shade at all, and they want good composted soil with good drainage. They'll drink a lot of water when they're in bloom, but they never want to dry out completely and they never want to sit in water either because they'll rot. But you can start it from seed or even by division, and they'll grow and bloom so well for you. They're such a gorgeous addition to your garden."