Towanda! Empowering Gardeners to Plant Cardinal Flowers Again

I get so sick and tired of gardeners telling me that Echinacea are not hardy. I ranted a while back on that (Winter Hardy Echinaceas, You Betcha!) and hopefully cleared up some common misconceptions about hardiness in one of the country’s favorite perennials. This week, I’m trying to clear up some untruths about cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis).

If I hear one more person tell me cardinal flowers MUST have wet soil and that they are weak and not hardy, I think it’ll drive me to drink hard liquor, do my best to impersonate Kathy Bates playing the unfulfilled housewife, Evelyn Couch, and shout, “Towanda!”

Towanda, towanda, towanda. Say it with me now, “Towanda!!!” (If you’ve seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes…you’ll get this. If not, my apologies…there’s always Netflix.)

Towanda is the mantra this unfulfilled housewife used to empower her to take back her life . She’s led a pretty boring life and her husband is no help. There’s nothing exciting about her life at all. She’s just going through the motions and she lets folks take advantage of her. She’s not strong. Saying “towanda” empowered her to take back her life, knock down some walls and ram-rod some pretty young girl’s convertible.

I’d like to empower you to grow lobelias again – with confidence.

Towanda!

I’ve grown many selections in my time. Most flowered gloriously the first year, followed by…nothing – never to be seen again. I understand the frustrations. I feel your pain. I bet you don’t realize Lobelia cardinalis is a biennial, do you? I didn’t know and to be honest, I just learned this last year. I’m thinking most people don’t know this.

Biennials are weird.

Here’s the traditional definition from Wikipedia:

“A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological life cycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots (vegetative structures), then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months. Usually the stem remains very short and the leaves are low to the ground, forming a rosette. Many biennials require a cold treatment, or vernalization, before they will flower. During the next spring or summer, the stem of the biennial plant elongates greatly, or “bolts”. The plant then flowers, producing fruits and seeds before it finally dies. There are far fewer biennials than either perennial plants or annual plants.”

That being defined, lobelias don’t follow this definition so well. They don’t stay alive simply because they produce seed. Like foxgloves (Digitalis sp.), they need a basal of growth to feed the roots and keep the plant alive in the fall and winter months. They do produce seed and they will spread themselves around, but if you are looking to continue growing the same selection (cultivar) that you purchased, seed isn’t always the best option because some selections do not come true from seed. If one of my many plant geek friends has a better way to explain this, please let me know.

So what’s the deal? Why do they die?

A wise nurseryman once told me that if you grow a cultivar of lobelia, you must remove the spent flower stalks when they are finished blooming. If you do not, they will use all of their power to produce viable seed and they won’t concentrate on growing roots and basal foliage. No basal foliage means no lobelia next year. Make sense?

We are trying to fool nature by forcing cultivars to produce this rosette because all they really want to do is produce seed, which is great for diversity, but not so great for keeping your prized selection growing from year to year. If you let the stalks go to seed, you may get a plethora of different lobelias, but you most likely will not get the same improved selection you bought.

You might be lucky and get a new and improved selection that’s totally different and even an improvement over what you bought. If that happens – call me and we’ll introduce it to the world! (wink, wink)

If you’d rather have a seriously diverse collection of lobelias for the hummingbirds and you don’t care about having that same purple leaved selection in your garden year after year, then have at it. Let the plant go to seed! I like to do both. But when you spend $15 on a 1 gallon that is supposed to have purple leaves, I’m pretty sure you don’t expect green leaves the next year.

Hopefully, this will help those of you who have given up on lobelias and give you a bit of an understanding about how they grow. They need our help to survive and thrive in our gardens. It’s pretty easy, really. I would add it to my list of the top 5 things to remember to do in your garden.

Pardon me, but I must interrupt this issue of The Weeding Gnome because I’m seriously contemplating disowning my very beautiful German short-haired pointer.

You see…while I was feverishly pounding on the keyboard, my beloved, soft, cuddly, full-of-love puppy decided to take the brand new rawhide I bought him today and bury it in a pot in the living room.

I expect my cats to dig in my pots, not the dog.

It wasn’t possible for him to bury his new chew toy without first –plant lovers brace yourselves-digging out and completely destroying my Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’, and all of the other plants in that mixed container.

Aaahhhh!!!!

What’s left is as pretty as a picture. Imagine this: deep, black potting soil all over a tan micro-suede couch. And let’s not forget the shredded leaves of my furcraea all over the carpet. He buried that rawhide about six inches into the pot. It’s quite lovely and with this deadline hanging over my head, it’s not getting cleaned up anytime soon. As if I needed something else to do tonight. Doesn’t he know I have an e-letter to publish and a presentation to prepare?

I think all the neighbors heard me scream, “ Bad dog!”

No sleeping under the covers for him tonight. Sorry for the interruption. Let’s get back to lobelias.

Why am I talking so much about lobelias, you ask? Two reasons:

1. I have a new cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) to introduce this year. It’s called ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ – hence the Towanda reference.

2. I am presenting this new lobelia at the ANLA (American Nursery and Landscape Association) Management Clinic in Louisville, KY on Monday, February 1, 2010 to a live audience and I NEED your votes.

The ANLA Management Clinic session is called Garden Idol. Here’s the description:

Horticulture’s hottest new intros, a celebrity panel of judges and our very own Chris “Call me Seacrest” Beytes. In this fast-paced, high-drama session you’ll meet the latest and greatest plant introductions, hear them professionally critiqued by our expert “celebrity” panel of judges, and vote to determine the winner. Imagine Paula, Simon and Randy impersonators judging these presentations. You get the premise…

This session will be tapped live and the videos will be posted on their website for voting in late March. I’ll keep you posted on that. I’ll need all the votes I can get. I’m presenting four plants. I’ll be in costume for all of my presentations. It’s going to be fun. We’ll see if this type of session can create a buzz. Just imagine a groovy, foxy Cleopatra (like the one from Austin Powers) and Lady Gaga…you get the picture. There will be music and everything. I won’t be serving Milkshakes (one of the other plants) or Fried Green Tomatoes, but it will be entertaining.

What’s the big deal about the new lobelia?

Lobelia cardinalis ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’ was selected from 1000’s of seedlings by a nursery that specializes in native perennials for its deep purple foliage and tomato red blooms. Growing up to six inches a day in June and July, this plant MUST have a strong, sturdy habit.

Boy does it! I swear, everyday when I get home from work in July it’s 6 inches taller. It’s amazing!

The stems remain upright throughout the summer only to reveal long, luscious, tomato-red candelabras of hummingbird attracting blooms. The blooms open sporadically from early August to mid September.

No wetland required for this cardinal flower. Mine is growing in average garden soil in full sun.

The foliage of Fried Green Tomatoes emerges dusky olive green and them matures to egg plant purple with a velvety veil. This plant is so vigorous, yet it remained straight and strong and tall, without flopping, even in full bloom. The dusky, olive green leaves reminded me of a fried green tomato and since the blooms are truly tomato red, not a purple-red, like most, that’s how James (the founder) and I came up with this crazy name.

Southerners love it and it definitely loves the south!

Each September, I remember to cut of the flower stalks and look for the basal of deep eggplant colored foliage and every year so far, there has been a healthy crop waiting to explode into growth for the next spring.

I have high hopes for this plant. It’s truly native. It’s quite lovely with its purple foliage and red blooms. It is strong and sturdy, unlike any other purple leaved lobelia on the market, and it will return year after year if you follow my one simple rule, because it has the vigor that many lobelias lack.

Wish me luck on Monday. I hope this works. Otherwise, I’ll look really silly and get lots of good laughs while I’m doing it and that alone could be viral. Remember the Pants on the Ground guy?

That’ll be me if this doesn’t go well. He got loads of free PR out of the ordeal, right?

Happy Weeding!

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau