I read an article on cardinal flower with interest, appreciation and complete agreement, except for one point: I would be less cautious and more enthusiastic in giving directions for growing cardinal flower in captivity. That any wild flower 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 our garden, some twenty years ago, I bought and planted packets of seed of a number of perennial plants, among them Lobelia cardinalis, which at that time was only an item 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 seed.
Since then we have always had cardinal flowers in profusion and have supplied both seeds and seedlings to many other gardens. Sometimes the seed is planted in a seed bed in proper fashion; 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 by Root Division
In addition to the seedlings. I increase stock by division of 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 a number of young plants. These will grow if left undisturbed, only not as well as they do when the gardener separates them and gives each little rosette of green room to establish itself as all individual. Young plants so grown lire less likely to suffer from Winter heaving than old, crowded clumps.
Truly, 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 also have the facts resulting from one experiment in naturalizing them.
In Its Native Habitat
In the wild, other growth around them becomes dense enough to crowd them out and the plant’s own 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? Some other wildings, purple loosestrife, for example, can be depended upon to re-appear in the same location year after year.
An Adaptable Perennial
One experiment which I made in growing them in the wild seems to prove that, while cardinal flower enjoys damp places, it resents being flooded for any length of time. In this case, seed was broadcast around a pond at a friend’s home and, for two or three years thereafter, 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 the following year there were no cardinal flowers. 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.
by D Jacobs – 61912
