Find out how to grow lobelia here with our simple steps

About Lobelia

The Lobelia plant is more commonly known as a summer bedding plant that can add lots of colour to your containers and is especially ideal for your hanging baskets. It is often grown with alyssum. Lobelia comes in mainly two colours, purple and blue. Newer varieties have been launched though these now come in red and pink – have you tried these yet?. Lobelia will tend to flower all the way through summer and autumn right through to the first frost when they will die back until the year after.

Choosing the right ground

Lobelias like either full sun or partial shade. This meaning they would like somewhere that is nice and warm with some sun to help it bloom and look radiant in summer. So either place your hanging baskets or containers ideally in the sun. Make sure that they have well fertile soil that can drain easy and not get water logged but add organic matter to the soil to help hold some of the moisture.

When to sow

If you are growing lobelia from seed these need to be grown 10 weeks indoors before planting them outdoors. They can be extremely hard to grow from seed as they are hard to germinate. Start them off either in winter (somewhere warm) or early spring in your greenhouse.

How to sow

When sowing lobelia it can be quite difficult as the seed is extremely small. Try and sprinkle it delicately and sparingly over the compost in a tray. Do not cover with compost as they need the light to germinate. Give them a fine sprinkle of water. Cover with a layer of clingfilm and put somewhere the sun and warmth will get to them.

Planting

Once the plants are big enough transplant them into pots to grow bigger. Do not plant them outside until after the end of May when all the chance of frost has gone.

When planting lobelia you can either plant it in containers/hanging baskets or in the ground. If you plant in containers and hangling baskets plant are 4 – 5 round the edge. These will hang down and add lots of colour to your pots. If you are planting them in the ground plant them around 15cm apart.

Caring

Lobelia does not take much caring for, just keep them watered and moist. If the sun is blazing put them in partial shade as the sun can kill the flowers and stop them from flowering.