Cardinal flowers (Lobelia cardinalis) create tall spikes of brilliant red blossoms between mid-summer and early fall. They provide the backyard alive by bringing hummingbirds along with species of butterflies. Cardinal flowers are native to stream banks and moist meadows, marshes and favor a ground that is wet, but them can grow in normal garden soil with regular watering. They can be hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant-hardiness zones 3 through 9. Those with leaves tinged with purple or bronze often grow best in the Bay Region.
Put cardinal flowers in autumn or spring, spacing them about a foot. Select a place. Put in a shovelful of compost for every single plant at putting time, in the event the ground is sandy.
Water the plants two times per week in the lack of rain for the initial month, and weekly thereafter all through summer and spring.
Use a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch round the plants to assist the earth hold in wet.
Following the blooms fade, snip out the bloom stalk just over the leafy place. This retains the plant appearing fantastic and occasionally supports added bloom stems.
Fertilize flowers in late winter, just as the crops start to break and again following the final blooms in autumn fade. Distribute some of dry natural fertilizer on the ground around each plant or a shovelful of compost. Water the plants to aid the plant food also to rinse off any plant food which could have landed on the leaves work its way to the main zone.
Every 2 or 3 years split clumps of flowers in autumn. Be sure each division has a lot of roots and top growth. Plants made growing in the exact same place for over 3 or 4 years often die out.
Distribute organic mulch for protection in USDA zones 7 and chillier on the crops in late autumn or winter.