Saturday, April 20, 2013

Mexican Lobelia

Mexican lobelia laxiflora-image courtesy of Wikipedia
When full grown, it creates a tall and wide grassy look to the garden. 
Spring is here and with it comes lots of great ideas for gardening. I've been working the El Presidio gardens now for 6 years.   Soon I will be giving up those duties and it's not easy.  One of my last duties is to finish off our fountain area.  With this planning comes a bit of responsiblity.  I want plants that will attract butterflies, lizards and birds.  They must also be drought tolerant.  Our focus today is on the Mexican Lobelia.
It's a native plant of Southern Arizona, Mexico and Central America.   This plant is attractive to our wonderful hummingbirds here in Tucson.  Generally, plants with long red/orange tubular flowers let these birds know that they are welcome to feast. Mexican Lobelia is a plant that offers both drought tolerance and food for our local fauna to our garden.
Broad-billed Hummingbird.  Taken at Rich Hoyer's place during  the December CBC
It's a great plant used near water features....such as El Presidio:) Great for oasis gardens. It's root hardy down to zero degrees.  Now since I've lived in Tucson, I've never seen temps drop that low.   It will grow to 2 or 3 feet tall.  It's a perennial.  It freezes to the ground in winter like Lantana or Bougainvillea. Before spring arrives, or around March 15th, trim off all the old foliage to allow new growth to begin.   The more water this plant gets, the more it will spread out. With moderate watering, it will still look good.  I've planted these under the large canopy of our Live Oak trees.   This plant appreciates some filtered shade with less water.  With sufficient water, it will handle full sun. It will tolerate heat and poor soil.
This space used to be a pool.  This plant will be used around the rock foundation.. The rock was used to create lizard habitat at El Presidio. We have them here in smaller numbers and it would be great to help increase the numbers to make the garden come alive.  We've quartered the area to make it easier planning around the area.  Remember to use the same plants to create a uniform pattern. 
For my gardening blogger friends, I apologize for my lack of writes about the El Presidio Garden.  If you can believe it, I'm still working our gardens here while running around chasing birds.  But this weekend,  I attended several plant shows happening around Tucson. Take a look at some of the color today provided from several gardens around town.









It was a much needed break.  Spring has arrived at the Old Pueblo.

12 comments:

  1. It certainly sounds like a great plant anywhere but especially around the fountain. You got to see some pretty blooms at the garden shows. Winter wants a bit more of us. Not completely spring here.

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  2. You have some really beautiful captures here Chris!

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  3. can't wait to see the fountain area when it's finished.

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  4. Nice to see you haven't given up gardening completely for the birding.

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  5. What a beautiful garden! SO nice to see spring - downunder we'll have to wait for another few months ...

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  6. I'm sure your garden in the fountain space will look very beautiful to us when it's finished, and it will be interesting to see the plants you choose. The Mexican Lobelia seems like the perfect choice to begin with for the reasons you mention.

    Lovely shots of the other flowers!

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  7. Beautiful rose photos Chris - really lovely :) Nice to see how your water feature is progressing and I really like to Mexican Lobelia. Great to plant a species that is good for several species of wildlife.

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  8. Chris, thanks for the look into your garden. I love that you are attracting the wildlife..like the hummers and the lizards. I think the fountain area will look awesome when it is done. You are doing a great job there. It is also nice to see that you really love working on El Presidio gardens. Have a happy day and week ahead!

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  9. Flowers? At first I thought I was on the wrong blog :) Look at that walkway, must smell delicious! Who knew roses loved that much heat.

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  10. How nice to see the garden again. I can't wait to see how the old pool area turns out.

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  11. Those roses are amazing! I think I could almost smell them... the power of suggestion!

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  12. I am blown away by the gorgeous flowers! Wow! I have been seeing many rose bushes in my neighborhood that are so lovely, and though I have decided to not have roses (except my little potted miniature ones)I always adore looking at them, and really all the lush flowers I am so familiar with! But I have to make some decisions about my yard this spring and I greatly appreciate your recommendation of the lobelia. I want to attract the hummingbirds I can no longer feed because of the bees...and attract the bees too. I have rocks so there's no shortage of lizards. :-) I also need some COLOR in my immediate little world since we spend so much time here at home.

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Thanks for stopping by!