A couple of years ago we went to South Wales on holiday. Imagine our delight to find we were just a stone’s throw from The National Botanic Gardens of Wales.
We actually went twice in the week we were there, and the second time came across the beautiful and stunning Lobelia Cardinale.
If like me, you thought lobelias were little blue flowers that people put in their hanging baskets to trail over the edge, be prepared for a surprise. These are tall and bright red!
We decided we would like to get some for our garden, and so I went online and found somewhere that sold them. We got 6 plug plants and nurtured them. One died and one was eaten by snails. That one regrew, to my delight when put in a pot separate from the others.
They grew and flourished the first summer, but did not flower, but this year, to our delight, they are magnificent. I promised to post some pictures, so here they are.
I’m afraid the last two are not perfectly in focus. My camera was trying to focus on the farther shoots!
Do you know of this variety of lobelia? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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Dragons Rule OK. V.M.Sang (author) 
I’m brain-dead when it comes to remembering the names of flowers, trees, weeds… but I enjoy the Natural World big time, especially when hiking. Your trip sound great.
Here in North America, there are four huge botanical-type gardens that we’ve visited and are worth the time: in Dallas, Texas; near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Tucson, Arizona (a desert garden); and in Portland, Oregon. I’m sure there are other wonderful places, but those are ones we’ve visited and loved!
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They sound great, especially the Arizona one. At the Welsh one there is a dome containing plants from all over the world in their natural habitats.
At Kew gardens, near London, there are many different glass houses for different climates. I had to leave the tropical rainforest one. It was so uncomfortable. Hot and Humid.
And in Cornwall, there is something called The Eden Project which reproduces different world climates in a series of domes, but we’ve not visited that.
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We had a purple version but like delphiniums they don’t like our soil so last a couple of years, sigh and scuttle off to more congenial pastures. Yours look fabulous
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Thank you, Geoff. They didn’t flower last year as they were only babies. We got them as tiny plug plants, but they’ve made up for it this year.
They are fussy, though. I planted these two in the back garden and one in the front. The one in the front wasn’t doing much, so I moved it to near these. It has now flowered.
One got eaten completely to nothing (curse the slugs and snails!). I thought, “well, that’s one gone.” Then I noticed a few little shoots so moved it into a tub near the back door. It is now flowering, even though it’s not as tall as the others.
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Those are beautiful! All my lobelia are the small blue and white varieties.
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Until we went to the Botanic Gardens of Wales, I thought that lobelias were all the little blue or white ones. I had to search online to find these.
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