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Lobelia erinus
Also called Garden Lobelia, Trailing Lobelia
Edging lobelia is a low, trailing plant grown as a half-hardy annual for edging beds, hanging baskets and window boxes, with blue, violet, white or pink flowers. It needs cool-season sowing indoors and planting out after frost, and it does best with regular moisture in part sun.
Lobelia erinus (edging lobelia, garden lobelia or trailing lobelia) is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family Campanulaceae, native to southern Africa.
Lobelia erinus is a very popular edging plant in gardens, especially for hanging baskets and window boxes. In temperate zones it is grown as a half-hardy annual, i.e. sown under glass with some heat in spring, then planted out when all danger of frost has passed. Alternatively plants can be purchased from garden centres as young "plug" plants, to be transferred outside in May or June.
The distribution area lies in southern Africa and extends from Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe to the south to Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini, Lesotho and the South African provinces. L. erinus also occurs as a weed where it has escaped from cultivation.
Cardinalflower · Chinese lobelia · Dortmann's cardinalflower · Indian-tobacco · Sierra Madre lobelia · Lobelia oligophylla · Lobelia polyphylla · Devil's Tobacco · Lobelias
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Lobelia erinus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
