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What eats Lobelia cardinalis greens?

12 years ago

Last year something really munched on my Lobelia cardinalis. Much of it survived but it sure did get a knocked back. I'm curious what it was.

I live next to wetland and woods. There are overpopulated deer but I've read L. cardinalis is deer resistant. But, deer will eat plants they are not supposed to when hungry. There are also plenty of muskrat in the wetlands as well as the usual assortment of eastern woodland critters like coons, squirrels, etc.

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Comments (6)

fatamorgana2121
12 years ago
Unless it looked like a critter chewed it, bugs would always be my first guess. Any pictures?

FataMorgana
ctnchpr
12 years ago
Cabbage Loopers can strip a plant quickly, and they blend with the leaves very well, making them hard to spot.
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I'm thinking the same thing as Ted. Campanula punctata has much wider lower leaves, and it doesn't develop a stalk like the plant in the photo does. Lobelia does have stalk like that. Also Campanula punctata has fine hairs on the stems. They seem to be absent in your photo above. The leaves to the right do look like Campanula punctata lower leaves. I'm wondering if the campanula has grown over to the plant in the photo and is co-mingled with it. Lobelia is not blooming here yet so it would still be unnoticeable. This is a pic of my 'Little Punky'. It is the best pic I have of leaves as opposed to flowers. It is a dwarf, but the larger forms look the same. Remy
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I pray it's not voles that I have. I think i was mice because I found a little nest and the roots were exposed enough (I dug it up kinda sloppily) so that after eatting the rosette of foliage the mouse could suck up the roots like little tasty strands of spagetti. The garage can warm up on a decent winter day.... the furnace and water heater are in a side room that vents to the garage so that adds to the warmth. It probably stays in the 40's. Ok the fig tree I keep in there is starting to sprout now too. I wonder if I can put it somewhere colder.... I already put all the potted bulbs outside, I gave up on winter. Terrene: open up one of their tunnels, put peanut butter on a trap and cover it with a board or something... if you can catch a few dozen it might make a difference. (from someone who was shocked one spring to find a mature cherry tree dying because it's roots were completely girdled and stripped)
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I love your Lobelia, and wish I could grow it here, but it's too dry, and I don't have enough shade. Are those Zinnias mixed in with it in the second photo? Your Asclepias tuberosa pictures have made me decide that I am definitely wintersowing some more of that this year! I left the pods on, so that I could collect the seed, but I have noticed some weird bugs on mine too. Will they eat the seedpods? Yesterday, when I was working in the garden, a hummer was just 3 or 4 feet from me, happily drinking out of the Agastache 'Apache Sunset', and I was wishing that I had my camera with me. Thanks for sharing your photos with us! Bonnie
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Ctpchr why is your Lobelia under ice?? I love that Queen Victoria and will look for the next time at a nursery. I've got lots of the regular species and my oldest plants have come back for the 3rd year as well as made lots of seedlings here and there through the back garden. I read in William Cullina's wildflower book, that it's beneficial to pamper them a little in the fall, as well as deadhead the seed heads, so that they put their energy into making healthy offsets that will make it over the winter.
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learn2turn
Original Author
12 years ago
Would insects eat down the stems too? The plants I had that were munch had the leaves, veins, and stems gone is if a critter gnawed it from the top down.
fatamorgana2121
12 years ago
Both woodchucks and rabbits have bit plants off near the base here to eat the plant on the spot or drag it off with them to eat elsewhere. Of course sometimes they decide after biting off the plant that they really don't want to eat it. The rabbits did that with my gas plants. Left the nipped off plant carcases for me to find.

You'll need to watch or examine your plants more closely to determine exact causes. You can protect them with barriers of some sort to discourage the non-insect pests. Insect pests need hand-plucking and squashing (what I do) or some sort of insecticide.

FataMorgana
joepyeweed
12 years ago
Japanese Beetles ate my cardinal flowers to the ground last year. They also ate all my jewelweed too. After they ate everything in my rain garden, they moved over to the milkweed flowers and the roses.
flora_uk
12 years ago
Snails ate mine.

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