IRISH GARDENING, 



155 



Lobelia Morning Glow. 



By C. F. Ball, Royal Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. 



THIS new lobelia is not yet in commerce, 

 but is a plant likely to make its mark when 

 distributed. At Glasnevin the lobelias 

 are grown in several places — in beds mixed 

 with g"ladioli, also in peat, but it is in the bog- 

 bed near a pond where these plants reach their 

 highest development. Here, planted in groups 

 overtopping the 

 greenery of cyprus, 

 iris, and rushes, they 

 give a most gorgeous 

 and striking bit of 

 colour. Lobelia 

 Mretly, a dazzling ver- 

 milion scarlet, has 

 reached nearly five feet 

 high, but is beaten by 

 its new neighbour 

 Morning Glow, which 

 is about six feet high. 

 Firefly is certainly a 

 good lobelia, with 

 long, narrow, glabrous 

 leaves, and shining, 

 bronzy stems, which 

 seem to enhance the 

 brightness of the 

 flowers. Morning 

 Glow has a stronger 

 and more sturdy stem 

 and broader leaves, 

 both stem and leaves 

 being covered with 

 downy hairs. But the 

 inflorescence is a dis- 

 tinct advance on 

 Firefly, the flowers are 

 much more numerous 

 and closely set, the in- 

 florescence itself being 

 two feet in length. 

 Abundance of side 

 shoots continue to flower after the main spike 

 is finished. 



Lobelia Lord Ardilaun has flowers of a softer 

 shade of scarlet, and the foliage is reddish in 

 colour, similar to the old Lobelia Queen 

 Victoria. This and the two former mentioned 

 plants have been raised by Mr. A. Campbell, 

 gardener to Lord Ardilaun, at St. Ann's, Co. 

 Dublin. At St. Ann's these lobelias are quite 

 a picture in the autumn : large oval beds, each 

 containing several hundred plants of one variety, 

 give quite a mass o\' colour, but planted in 

 ordinary flower beds their habit is smaller and 

 more suited to this mode of culture. All the 

 hybrid lobelias enjoy a rich soil witli plenty of 



J'/,vlu li,,\ lMi\ V. !■'. hall. 



Lobelia Morning Glow. 



Photograplied from Specimens grown in Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. 



decayed manure ; they do well in partial shade 

 or in the open, the latter for preference if the 

 water supply is good. 



In the colder parts of England the roots are 

 taken up after flowering and packed close to- 

 gether in boxes of soil, and put in a frame or 

 cool house. In spring, in order to get strong 

 spikes of flower, the crowns should be separated 

 and potted off" or transplanted singly into boxes 

 to get strong for planting time. At Glasnevin 

 they remain in the ground without protection, 



and the frost seldom 

 injures them. It is a 

 curious fact that those 

 in the bog bed, which 

 is sometimes flocided 

 in winter, are more 

 immune than the 

 others. In spring, 

 after they have started 

 to grow well, they are 

 lifted and divided. A 

 hole is taken out to 

 eighteen inches or two 

 feet, and in this is 

 buried a good layer 

 of cow manure, and 

 the soil is placed on 

 the top, in which the 

 divisions are planted ; 

 then they are usually 

 no further trouble. 



The lobelias are not 

 difficult to cross They 

 belong to a section of 

 Campanulas, which 

 has the corolla two- 

 lipped or irregular. 

 The anthers are con- 

 nate and protandrous- 

 t'.e., they are joined 

 together so as to form 

 a tube, and also ripen 

 before the stigma is 

 ready for fertilization. 

 The stigma is hairy, 

 and during its growth brushes out the pollen 

 before the stigma becomes stigmatic. The 

 receptive state in which to apply the pollen 

 is when the stigma has expanded into a bifid 

 knob. The pollen oi the lobelia is oval in 

 shape, differing from the Campanula, in which it 

 is spherical. 



" Stand back, bewildered politics ! 



I've placed my fences round ; 

 Pass on with all your party tricks, 



Nor tread on holy g-round : 

 Stand back — I'm weary of your talk, 



Your squabbles and your hate ; 

 You cannot enter in this walk, 



I've closed my garden gate." — Dr. C. IMackay. 



