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.