Cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'
Lobelia cardinalis 'Queen Victoria' · Campanulaceae
Spikes of brilliant scarlet over stems and leaves of deep beetroot purple: red on purple, a combination with no equal for intensity.
- Size
- 3½ ft tall, 14 in wide
- Zones
- 4 to 9
- Light
- Full sun to part shade
- Flowers
- Late July to mid September
- Pets
- Toxic (moderate)
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'
The planner designed this bed around cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) cottage garden in zone 6, part sun. It chose the other plants from the 367 that suit those conditions and its wet soil, and says below why cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' × 3, red
- 2 Lingonberry × 7, pink
- 3 English primrose × 11, yellow
- 4 Garden phlox 'Jeana' × 3, pink
- 5 Globe arborvitae 'Danica' × 1, green leaves
- 6 Gray's sedge × 3, green
- 7 Summer snowflake × 7, white
- 8 Snowdrop × 12, white
Why this plant
- The only spires. The others are bells, open bowls, dense clusters and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
- The only red.
Why here
- Anchors a back corner. At 3½ ft it is among the tallest plants here, and the tallest close the ends of the bed, where they stand in front of nothing.
- A step in the back row. Next to Gray's sedge (2½ ft): no two neighbours there are the same height, so the back steps up and down like a skyline.
- 3 plants in one clump. A single spire is too slight to hold a place alone, so here the accent is a clump.
Why now
- In flower for 8 weeks. From late July to mid September.
- Part of the bed's peak. With garden phlox 'Jeana' and Gray's sedge in late July: 3 kinds at once. No week has more.
Planned as a cottage garden: 28 of the 28 plants (100%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. The back corners are held by cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' and garden phlox 'Jeana', the tallest plants on the plan. Neither end outweighs the other: the visual weight is split 45 to 55, left to right.
The planner's own design check: 12 Excellent, 4 Good, 1 Satisfactory. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' goes in a border
At 3½ ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is moderately tall (3 to 4 ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
Use it as an exclamation mark in a moist border. It is short-lived unless divided every second spring, and needs soil that never dries.
- A vivid accent in moist soil
- Hummingbirds
- Pond margins
What to plant with cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Japanese forest grass 'Aureola': its chartreuse leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after; low enough (16 in) to stand in front of it.
- Ligularia 'Britt-Marie Crawford': in flower together for six weeks, from early August; bold leaves against its medium ones; a low mound at the foot of its spires.
- Royal fern: its green leaves are a setting for the flowers, before and after; happy in the same wet soil.
Questions about cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'
Does cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' need sun or shade?
Cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day), part sun (4 to 6 hours of sun, including some afternoon sun) and part shade (2 to 4 hours of sun, mostly in the morning).
It wants moist to wet soil, rich in organic matter, and plenty of water. It copes with soil that stays wet.
What zones does cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' grow in?
USDA zones 4 to 9. It is hardy to zone 4, which means it survives winter nights down to about −20 °F (−29 °C).
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers late July to mid September. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 4 | Early August to mid September |
|---|---|
| Zone 5 | Late July to mid September |
| Zone 6 | Late July to mid September |
| Zone 7 | Mid July to mid September |
| Zone 8 | Mid July to mid September |
| Zone 9 | Mid July to mid September |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' be planted?
12 in (30 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 14 in (35 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3½ ft (100 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' plants do I need?
At 12 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 12 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 11 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 38 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
Is cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' poisonous to dogs and cats?
Yes: moderate toxicity to people, dogs, cats and horses. All parts are poisonous if eaten in quantity, causing vomiting, weakness and, in serious cases, convulsions.
Rated from NC State Extension and the ASPCA. Where references disagree, the more cautious rating is used.
Is there a pet-safe plant like cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'?
These come closest to doing what cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' does, and no toxicity is recorded for them:
- Peach-leaved bellflower: the same job in a bed; 10 in shorter, flowers mid June to mid July.
- Purple moor grass 'Moorhexe': the same job in a bed and the same flowering time; 10 in shorter, purple, not red.
Matched the way the planner's Swap button matches plants: the same job in a bed, then size, then flowering time.
Do deer eat cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'?
They may. NC State does not list it as resistant to deer or rabbits. Where they visit, protect it, or plant it among ones they avoid.
What flowers after cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria'?
Cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' is over by mid September. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Blue-stemmed goldenrod: from early September to mid October, 2½ ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Toad lily: from mid September to mid October, 2½ ft tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' look like in winter?
Cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' dies down to the ground and there is nothing to see until spring. The old stems can be cut in autumn, or left until spring as shelter for overwintering insects.
Is cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' good for bees and butterflies?
Cardinal flower 'Queen Victoria' is visited by pollinators, butterflies and hummingbirds.
It is native to the United States and Canada (this is a named variety of the native plant).
More Lobelia
- Cardinal flower Lobelia cardinalis
- Great blue lobelia Lobelia siphilitica
- Purple lobelia Lobelia x speciosa 'Vedrariensis'
In these guides
- Plants for wet soil and rain gardens
- Garden plants toxic to cats
- Garden plants toxic to dogs
- Native perennials for pollinators
- Native plants for shade
- Garden plants native to Canada
- Plants for hummingbirds
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants with spires: vertical accents
- Plants with purple and burgundy leaves
Zone guides: Zone 4 · Zone 5 · Zone 6 · Zone 7 · Zone 8 · Zone 9
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3½ ft (100 cm) tall, 14 in (35 cm) wide
- Plant
- 12 in (30 cm) apart
- Height class
- Moderately tall (3 to 4 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Late July to mid September; upright spires; red
- Leaves
- Medium texture, herbaceous; burgundy, purple
- Shape
- Upright, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 4 to 9
- Light
- Full sun, part sun, part shade
- Soil
- Rich, moist to wet
- Water
- High
- Feeding
- Light, in spring
- Family
- Campanulaceae
- Comes from
- Eastern United States
- Attracts
- Pollinators, butterflies, hummingbirds
- Stands up to
- Wet soil
Checked against NC State Extension, ASPCA poison lists and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.