Lobelia plants
Lobelia spans a group that includes annual bedding plants, biennials and perennials. They are easy to grow and care-free, producing masses of beautiful blooms in colours spanning violets, whites, pinks, reds and blues. They make excellent additions to flower beds, mixed borders, pond edges and container displays, or alternatively as ground cover plants to beautify bare patches of earth. They have a dome-shaped growth habit which becomes clothed in blooms set off against the neat green foliage throughout the summer. Most perennials are of the varieties Lobelia cardinalis and Lobelia siphilitica, whereas Lobelia erinus are annual, tender bedding plants. Lobelia prefer a moist, humus-rich, slightly acidic soil. Interestingly, the name of Indian tobacco derived from the fact that Native Americans once smoked lobelia plant to treat asthma.