{"id":11807,"date":"2011-12-11T07:23:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T14:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=11807"},"modified":"2012-02-10T06:41:50","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T13:41:50","slug":"help-growing-lobelia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/help-growing-lobelia\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Growing Lobelia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Purple Lobelia with white eye\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3138\/2696835722_e0851cbddb_d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"353\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27466406@N00\/2696835722\/\"><em>Photo cc by slideshow bob<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lobelia erinus or annual Lobelia is renown for it&#8217;s strong blue summer flowers that combine well with the white of Alysum. Thet are also capable of making a strong statement when grown in a container.<\/p>\n<h2>Description of Lobelia<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The single flowers of Lobelias have small, round leaves and flowers up to 1\/2 inch in diameter.<\/li>\n<li>Some varieties are compact and mound forming whist others are grown for their trailing habit.<\/li>\n<li>Lobelia flowers from July until October in white, purple or blue shades and some varieties are bicoloured.<\/li>\n<li>Plants are low growing dependent on variety.<\/li>\n<li>The plants have a light airy and frail but are covered in flower.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Cultivation Tips for Lobelia<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Easy to grow from seed or buy as ready grown plants. Young plants can be slow and frustrating to develop.<\/li>\n<li>Lobelia grows best in cool areas.<\/li>\n<li>Space four to six inches apart in the garden or in containers.<\/li>\n<li>Sow 3mm (1\/8in) deep in early spring at 70-75F in a good seed compost. Keep soil damp but not wet, sealing in a polythene bag after sowing is helpful.<\/li>\n<li>Germination usually takes 15-21 days. When seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant and grow on in cooler conditions.<\/li>\n<li>Gradually acclimatise to outdoor conditions for 10-15 days before planting out after all risk of frost<\/li>\n<li>Lobelia like well-drained but light yet moist soil in a cool spot.<\/li>\n<li>Can be grown as pot or container plants in cool well ventilated areas with plenty of light.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Lobelia by daryl_mitchell, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/daryl_mitchell\/2645365189\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3127\/2645365189_ca2088990b.jpg\" alt=\"Lobelia\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<em>Creative commons from daryl_mitchell\/2645365189\/<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Special Growing Tips for Lobelia<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Use Lobelia for edging borders in formal planting or as spot colour in rock gardens, or in front of taller plantings beside walks and pathways.<\/li>\n<li>Trailing Lobelia are among the best plants for window boxes, pouches and all types of containers.<\/li>\n<li>Older varieties in Ultra Cascade mix, flower early and fade, whilst the newer varieties last longer, so mixed together you&#8217;ll have a full season of stunning lobelia colour.<\/li>\n<li>Keep Lobelia well watered.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Varieties, Species and Types of Lobelia<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Mounding forms such as Crystal Palace have deep-blue flowers and bronze foliage<\/li>\n<li>Cambridge Blue has sky-blue flowers and Rosamund flowers cherry-red.<\/li>\n<li>Favourite trailers such as Blue Fountain ahve deep-blue petals with white eyes.<\/li>\n<li>Blue Cascade and White Cascadeare appropriately named.<\/li>\n<li>\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSuperstar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 whose flowers are truly dramatic with unusually large bloom in deep indigo blue with a bright white eye is a relative new comer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Horticulture Sources and Advice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>You can often obtain seeds or plants from our mail order company of choice <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thompson-morgan.com\/plants1\/search.html?section=all&amp;search=lobelia\"> see here for Thompson &amp; Morgan&#8217;s selection <\/a><\/li>\n<li>Lobelia like cooler conditions and tolerate poor soils.<\/li>\n<li>From Gardeners Tips 2009 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-admin\/post.php?post=6793&amp;action=edit\">Tips for Growing Lobelia<\/a><\/strong>:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lobelia erinus or annual Lobelia is renown for it&#8217;s strong blue summer flowers that combine well with the white of Alysum. Thet are also capable of making a strong statement when grown in a container.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}