August 28
Cardinal Flower
(Lobelia
cardinalis)
My native
plants are like a symphony in which violins (and violets)
play their sweet song at the beginning of spring, but later
the trumpets come in, louder so they can be heard above the
violins. Cardinal Flowers are like the trumpets. They
command attention, often rising more than five feet above
the earlier plants of spring and summer, and have brilliant
red flowers that are a favorite of hummingbirds. There may
be twenty inches of flowers on each stem, but not all at
the same time. The lower blooms open first. Weeks later the
top blooms will finish the chorus. I’ve found that the seed
pods from the first blooms can be stripped off the stem to
“clean it up” without harming the blooms above, even though
a milky substance does appear briefly. Or, if you need more
plants, leave the seed pods on the stem to ripen; they
reseed reliably. The seeds need light to germinate which
explains why they show up in the lawn. Also, a stem can be
bent and anchored horizontally onto moist ground to produce
new little plants at the stem nodes in about six weeks.
After blooming, cut the stalk back half way and watch for
smaller red blooms as late as November. Or, cut it back all
the way to encourage the plant to produce offshoots. Even
cuttings can be rooted. So, not only is Cardinal Flower the
most gorgeous flower in your garden, it’s free!
The plant over-winters as a low rosette of leaves which
doesn’t do well under mulch. But a moist area in some sun
is preferred. You may find the white flowers of the
vine, Clematis
paniculata, there at the
same time in late summer. It has naturalized and is welcome
to scramble over my hollies each summer because the white
flowers look great against the dark green. Later the silky
hairs on the seeds look like pretty little silk tassels.
But that is when I must take a few minutes to pull the
vines off and out or I will have too much of a good thing
next year.
The butterfly in the painting is a Tiger Swallowtail.
(Click on the picture for
a larger image)
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