Seeds for Lobelia richardsonii
Q. I’m interested in obtaining seeds for L. richardsonii. Any idea where they can be found? A local garden center used to sell it in containers and it would trial 30″ or more… Have never seen it since.
A. Lobelia richardsonii is a plant of uncertain origin. It might be a mutation or hybrid of some sort or simply a selection. It differs from Lobelia erinus in being a perennial instead of an annual, but otherwise is much the same, though usually compact, not trailing as you describe. The best trailing lobelias are L. erinus plants marked “trailer’ or ‘cascade’. Seeds of trailing annual L. erinus can purchased from Thompson and Morgan and include Lobelia pendula ‘Cascade’ which is easy to grow by sprinkling seeds on top of moist soil mix. It’s a show-stopper in a hanging basket and hangs down at least 30” as you mentioned and is blanketed with bloom in summer.
Most growers start L. richardsonii from cuttings, not from seeds, but it only cascades a foot or two. Two years ago, a local grower near my home lost their whole crop of the plant they called L. richardsonii to a virus infection. They replaced their crop with cuttings from one of my healthy, virus-free plants.
I grew the plants called L. richardsonii for many years in hanging baskets and they seldom if ever set seeds which may explain why this plant can bloom almost constantly year round in warm climates. According to “Flora”, a garden encyclopedia published by Timber Press, the compact Proven Winners variety ‘Royal Jewels’ is actually L. richardsonii, but I do not know for sure if that is the case. You can find seeds of L. ‘Royal Jewels’ through Ball Seeds, Gurney Seeds, and many other catalogues. I suggest growing some or purchasing plants of Proven Winners ‘Royal Jewels’ and finding out by growing it if it is the perennial lobelia you seek. However, having grown this plant for many years I can attest it does not cascade to the length that the old type of trailing annual does. Nothing ever came up to the dramatic impact of blue trailing annual l. erinus in my garden or as I have seen it growing in window boxes and hanging baskets in Europe.
Best of luck,
Pat