Lobelia 'Fan Blue'
Trial: Annual
Year Trialed: 2004
Year of Trial: First (from 2004 report)
Good Qualities:
Beautiful blue/purple color (7); Nice spike/type flowers; Good filler or by itself; Long flowering period; Hard color to find in the September garden; Great late bloom with positive customer response; Wildflower look; My customers loved it, I sold it all, its mulched so hopefully will come back; Color very useful in flower arrangements, stem are same length on every plant, very uniform; Nice color for accents within an arrangement, continuous flowering, no pest problems; This color is superb, customers at our farmers market grab anything this color, only had one really good cutting from plants, (side shoots weren=t long enough for good cuts), hope this overwinters and has more and longer flower stalks next year, no support netting needed.
Problems:
May not winter over, plan to mulch for the winter; Didn=t flower till early October/late September which often could be frost (Zone 5); Sap runs when leaves are removed, perhaps it needs to be grown in greenhouse, because our blooms were damaged by bugs or lawn mower clippings; Side shoots weren=t long enough for good cuts, the seeds were tiny and the plants took weeks and weeks to grow, finally set out clumps of tiny plants without separating them and they took off and did fine
Postharvest:
Tended to wilt, so had to pick and condition in the cooler quickly. Editor's note: see separate postharvest article in this issue for more information.
Trial Data
| Yield (stems/plant) | Stem Length (inches) | Market Appreciation Rating - Wholesale (1) | Market Appreciation Rating - Retail (1) | Market Appreciation Rating - Consumer (1) | Repeat Again Rating (1) | Ease of Cultivation Rating (1) | Average Spacing (in2) | Average Postharvest Life (days) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 6.4 | 16.2 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 101 | 7.8 |
| Range of Responses | 1-18 | 9-29 | 3 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 3-5 | 25-192 | 5-11 |
(1) 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
(1) Data shown are from those respondents who harvested stems. Some respondents may not have harvested stems because they were too short. Flowering stems may be longer next year after plants are established. See comments section for more details.
(2) 1 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Market ratings are based on sales to wholesalers, retailers, or final consumers direct.
Supplier
Benary Seed
1444 Larson St.
Sycamore, IL 60178
Comments:
Sowed in greenhouse 2/3/04, transplanted to 128 cell tray, harvest period 8/14 to 8/30/04 (Zone 4-5).