Cardinal Flower

The Cardinal Flower has been an interesting flower to me. I remember when I first heard
about it. It caught my attention right away but even more so when I did some research to find out what it was about. When I saw a picture, I immediately fell in love with it. However, at the time Gerda Wekerle, one of the professors in the FES faculty said that it was one of those flowers that needed some extra attention and was unable to last a long time in the HNES garden. There was something in me that thought otherwise however. As the months rolled on, I started to get more and more prepared for the Garden Planter Initiative. The day came to purchase the flowers for the garden. I picked out two Jacobs ladder, one wild raspberry, and four cardinal flower with two of each type to go along with the trees Common Witch-hazel and Pagoda Dogwood.

We started planting on June 4th and after I planted the cardinal flower, it almost looked
like vegetable leaves. I did not know how it would turn out or what it would do. Well, in about a few weeks, it started to grow and get bigger. Before long, it started to blossom. The red type was the first to come out a month after I planted it. After that first month, it went crazy. Pretty soon, it blossomed 12 flowers and than 24. Not long after, the blue type blossomed and looks just as terrific.

Today the Cardinal Flower is still looking as fabulous as it did a month ago. It just goes to
show you that if someone says you have trouble or you can’t do something, you can always prove them wrong. The cardinal flower certainly did that. Gerda has told me that slugs like to eat its leaves so she gave me some preventive measures to ward off these harmful destroyers. I now put eggshells around the flower but sand also helps too. Since we have not had any slug issues with the plant, the egg shells have ended up not being needed. However, I will not take anychances and will be putting out some more in the near future.

I still have not witnessed any bees or any other flying insects take from its centre but
hopefully in the future I witness this.

I certainly love all my species, I love the pagoda dogwood, I love the common
witchhazel, and I love the jacob’s ladder. It is the Cardinal flower that has certainly gotten the most attention. Whenever, I’m down I look at it and it makes me smile because it is something that has gone right for once in my life.

It has become the signature flower of the HNES restoration North garden planter.

From,

Jonathan Robert De Serres (JRD)

Cardinal flower: Lobelia cardinalis

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