Blue Lobelia

BLUE LOBELIA, Lobelia erinu

APLANT so well known as the little blue lobelia may appear capable of telling its own story, but it is not so; and there is so much in the story that we must be business-like, and avoid sentiment and gossiping. It represents a pretty group of dwarf-growing, wiry-habited, free-flowering plants, the flowers of which are mostly of some shade of blue, but occasionally white, rosy purple, and pucy pink. They are all annuals or perennials, according to the treatment they receive and the kind of season they have passed through. In a hot dry summer they produce an abundance of seed, and become exhausted. In this case the old plants are likely to die during the winter, however much care may be taken of them. After a wet cool summer the old plants are likely to survive the winter, if potted and housed sufficiently early in the autumn.

In the cultivation of these dwarf lobelias, the saving of old plants is resorted to only for the purpose of supplying cuttings in spring, annual renewals of the plants being absolutely needful if a free growth and an abundant bloom be desired. A quick way of making stock is to tear the plants to pieces in the autumn, and pot the little rooted tufts in sandy soil and store them away in a greenhouse or pit. The section known as "pumila," consisting of very dwarf cushion-like plants, may be very well propagated by this method, but the more wiry ones, such as ramosa and elegans, are best grown from cuttings. They may all be most easily grown from seeds sown in pans in February or March, and afterwards pricked out to become strong in time for bedding, or the seed may be sown in April where the plants are to remain to flower, and if thinned in good time the plants will do very well, although, of course, they will flower somewhat late.