Common name: Edging/Trailing Lobelia, Lobelia
Family: Campanulaceae, Bellflower
Height x width: 4-9" tall x 4-6" wide
Growth rate: slow
Foliage: alternate, serrate; lower leaves obovate, upper leaves linear, dark green or bronze green, 1/2" long
Flowers: small racemes to 2" long or small flowers to 1/2" across and 2" long; florets tubular, 2-lipped, fan shaped lower lip, white or yellow eye (center); blue, purples, white, red and variations
Hardiness: annual
Soil: moist, fertile
Light: full sun in north or if moist soil and cool summer, part shade otherwise
Pests and Problems: none serious, may get leaf spots or rusts, occasionally slugs
Landscape habit, uses: edging, containers, massed as ground cover, rock gardens; trailing types in hanging baskets
Other interest: native to South Africa; named for Matthias de l"Obel, botanist and physician for James I of England in 16th century; other related and popular species and cultivars are perennial, some suitable for watersides
Other culture: keep well-watered, fertilized through summer
Propagation: seeds sown indoors 10-12 weeks before last frost;
cuttings from mature plants
Cultivars: those marked * are most commonly seen; trailing types
sometimes listed as erinus pendula
| Cultivar | flowers | habit |
| ‘Alba’ | white | compact |
| ‘Blue Moon’ | violet-blue | compact |
| ‘Blue Pearl’ | blue, early | compact |
| *‘Cambridge Blue’ | sky blue | compact |
| *Cascade Hybrids | various | trailing |
| ‘Cobalt Blue’ | intense blue, early | compact |
| *’Crystal Palace’ | dark blue, dark foliage | compact |
| ‘Lilac Fountain’ | lilac pink | trailing |
| Moon Hybrids | white, blue variations, early | compact |
| ‘Mrs. Clibran Improved’ | bright blue, white eyes | compact |
| *Palace Hybrids | blue or white | compact |
| ‘Pink Flamingo’ | bright pink | upright, branching |
| Regatta Hybrids | various, long bloom | trailing |
| *Riviera Hybrids | blue variations, early | compact |
| ’Rosamund’ | cherry red, white eye | compact |
| *’Sapphire’ | bright blue, white eye | trailing |
| ‘Snowball’ | white | compact |
| ‘String of Pearls’ | mix | compact |
| ‘Waverly Blue’ | sky blue | compact |
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