I have read Mrs. Ruth D. Grew’s article on a cardinal flower in Horticulture with interest, appreciation, and complete agreement except for one point: I would be less cautious and more enthusiastic in giving directions for growing cardinal flowers in captivity.
That any wildflower so beautiful could establish itself in the garden with the exuberance — and sometimes the willfulness — of a weed is difficult to believe, but it has done that in our garden and in many others to which seed or seedlings of our plants have gone.
Plants Started from Seed
When we first came to this garden, some 20 years ago, I bought and planted packets of seeds of several perennial plants, among them Lobelia cardinals, which at that time was only 101 items in the catalog to me.
With beginner’s luck, I succeeded in raising a few seedlings. The next year, brought delighted acquaintance with that most beautiful, dear, brilliant red of the cardinal flower blossoms, and I liked them so much that I bought a few additional plants.
I also saved and planted some home-grown seeds. Since then, we have always had cardinal flowers in profusion and supplied seeds and seedlings to many other gardens.
Sometimes the seed is properly planted in a seed bed; more often, it is just scattered in likely places, and, most often, it self-sows in places both likely and unlikely.
It comes up in the lawn, in the vegetable garden, in the perennial border, in the paths — anywhere that a chance seed falls. Our soil is a very sandy loam, seemingly just suited to its fancy.
Increase Stock by Root Division
In addition to the seedlings, I increase stock by dividing the old plants. Gray describes lobelia cardinalis as “perennial by offshoot, and it is doubtful if there is a better example of the meaning of this expression.
The flowering stalk almost always dies, but attached to and clustered around its base will be found.
These will grow if left undisturbed, only not as well as they do when the gardener separates them and gives each little rosette of the green room to establish itself as an individual.
Naturalizing Cardinal Flowers
Young plants so grown lire less likely to suffer from Winter heaving than old, crowded clumps.
Truly, as Mrs. Grew states, a mass of cardinal flowers growing in the wild is something to hold one spellbound. Since they are so easily grown in the garden, it is a mystery that they are not more common in nature.
I have a theory on this and the facts from one experiment in naturalizing them.
In the wild, another growth around them becomes dense enough to crowd them out, and the plant’s habit of producing many off-shoots around the central stalk causes it to crowd itself out of nourishment in the same way that old phlox clumps behave.
This doesn’t account for the fact that occasionally one does have the good fortune to come upon a wide sweep of cardinal flowers. But does Nature ever adhere strictly to any theory?
For example, some other windings, purple loosestrife, can be depended upon to re-appear in the same location year after year.
It would be interesting to have reports on a vigorous stand of cardinal flowers growing in the same place over the years.
An Adaptable Perennial
One experiment I made in growing them in the wild proves that while cardinal flowers enjoy damp places, it resents being flooded for any length of time.
In this case, the seed was broadcast around a pond at a friend’s country home, and for two or three years after that, the reward was a fine display of flowers. Then came a winter when the water was unusually high.
The area around the pond was completely flooded for some months, and there were no cardinal flowers the following year.
Later, a few appeared along the banks of the stream which feeds the pond, but they have never established themselves thickly in their former home.
Cardinal Flowers Seed Packets
Horticulture published an art item on cardinal flowers grown in our garden some years ago. After that, I hauled several requests for seed packets, which I filled.
One of the recipients wrote to me two years later that she was enjoying a brilliant display of flowers from this seed.
I have a few packets of this year’s seed on hand now, which I will gladly give to anyone who will send me a self-addressed envelope.
Conservation should always be as much a matter of “Do Plant” as of “Do Not Pick.”
44659 by De Ette Jacobs