Cardinal flower is traditionally cardinal red.

This warm season annual is actually a biennial. Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis, may stay relatively short for its first summer. It might bloom four feet high for its second or third summer. By then, pups are easy to divide as new plants to replace the old. Most cardinal flower plants from nurseries are rather mature. They might grow tall for their first summer.

Common cardinal flower has rich cardinal red bloom and bright green foliage. ‘Alba’ has white bloom. ‘Rosea’ has pink bloom. ‘Queen Victoria’ has familiar rich red bloom above deeply bronzed foliage. Individual flowers are only an inch and a half from top to bottom, but are numerous. Basal leaves can be almost six inches long. Upper leaves are shorter.

Cardinal flower enjoys richly organic soil with regular irrigation. It dislikes getting too dry. It appreciates a bit of partial shade as the weather gets warmest after noon. Seed is easy to collect. However, seed from fancy cultivars is not necessarily true to type. Subsequent generations eventually revert to familiar rich cardinal red bloom and bright green foliage.

6 thoughts on “Cardinal Flower”

  1. When I found the perfect place for my Cardinal flowers they did really well. I have been cutting them back early on as they get so tall, but now they put up more flower stalks. They reseed prolifically. Hummingbirds love them.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. How long are they perennial? I think of them as biennials, but I know that some people grow them longer than two years. I have done that with other biennials, but it is really more work than it is worth for some. For example, pulling up only foxglove to plant it a bit deeper for another season.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I really don’t know and haven’t really counted the years. I know I can cut the stalks off down to a “rosette” that comes back. The plants reseed so prolifically, that there always seems to plenty in that space. I am a bit of a “free form” gardener and let plants grow where they are happy. No garden design awards for me.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. That is the impression that I get about them, that they grow sort of like foxglove. I really do not keep track of when individual plants die out because there are always seedlings to replace them.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment