{"id":6793,"date":"2014-03-08T02:11:02","date_gmt":"2014-03-08T09:11:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6793"},"modified":"2014-03-05T08:24:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T15:24:12","slug":"tips-for-growing-lobelia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/novice-gardeners\/tips-for-growing-lobelia\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for Growing Annual Lobelia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fine seed slow to bulk up &#8211; our tip is to buy kinder pots or germinated seedlings unless you want a lot of plants.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Lobelia planter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2468\/3641646327_551c82d67e_d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tusnelda\/3641646327\/\"><em>Photo cc by storebukkebruse<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lobelia annuals can be excellent fun to grow. Given the right conditions they can grow quickly after a slow start and\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 flower from June until late autumn.<\/p>\n<p>The blue or purple Lobelia are often coupled with Alyssum for the edge of borders to give a cottage garden effect.<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/7976317153\/\" title=\"Lobelia by brianpettinger, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8443\/7976317153_0cfdfd7bde.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Lobelia\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Choose the right variety.<\/strong> If you want to grow colourful Lobelia try a specific variety such as<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lobelia Crystal       Palace a compact      plant with 5p sized blue flowers on dark leaves. Blue Moon is earlier to      start flowering.<\/li>\n<li>The Fountain series of      Lobelia produce\u00c2\u00a0 trailing plants:      Lilac fountain or White Fountain will look good in dry stone walls or in      containers and baskets.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Where to Grow<\/strong>. Lobelia are accommodating plants that will grow in most situations. They are great in Rockeries or the trailing habit looks good in a hanging basket. Window boxes or planters can bring the flowers to eye-level.<br \/>\nThey can also be used to frame other annuals using the mound of Lobelia\u00c2\u00a0 as neat edging.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Blue Borders. <\/strong>Plant your Lobelia \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcSapphire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 or \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBlue Stone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with a mix of other blue flowers such as &#8216;Blue Daddy&#8217; Petunias and the powder blue Ageratum. Highlight the blue with a white Cosmos or white Busy Lizzy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Feeding.<\/strong> Lobelia enjoy a moist well fed soil but do not need extra fertiliser. If they are flagging after the first flush of flowers trim them down a bit to encourage repeat flowering.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Watering.<\/strong> Lobelia don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like drying out and they can soon start to wither in hot weather. Give them a good watering once a week rather than little bits at a time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Starting from Seed.<\/strong> Seeds are very fine and are sown thinly. Start in early spring. When big enough you can plant out in clumps rather than individually, hardening off if necessary.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Starting from Seedlings or Plug Plants. <\/strong> Buy before they start flowering with stocky stems and rich green leaves. Avoid leggy plants or ones with yellowing or curly leaves.<\/p>\n<p>Do not eat \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all parts of the plant can be harmful if eaten in quantity.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/7441407460\/\" title=\"Lobelia by brianpettinger, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7253\/7441407460_58f53b1446.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Lobelia\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Useful Links<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.thompson-morgan.com\/search?p=Q&amp;lbc=thompson-morgan&amp;uid=557154991&amp;ts=custom&amp;w=lobelia&#038;af=&#038;isort=score&#038;method=and&#038;view=plaintext&#038;cnt=300\">Thompson Morgan<\/a> Seeds to consider buying.<\/p>\n<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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fine seed slow to bulk up &#8211; our tip is to buy kinder pots or germinated seedlings unless you want a lot of plants. Photo cc by storebukkebruse Lobelia annuals can be excellent fun to grow. Given the right conditions they can grow quickly after a slow start and\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 flower from June until late autumn. The blue or purple Lobelia are often coupled with Alyssum for the edge of borders to give a cottage garden effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,233],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-novice-gardeners","category-growing-easy-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793","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=6793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}