Two native flowers

By Aaron Horrell

Great blue lobelia is a Missouri native perennial plant that has wonderfully shaped blue flowers.

It sometimes is called blue cardinal flower.

The great blue lobelia loves to grow in wet, shaded areas around ponds, streams and swamps. These shown were slightly more than 4 feet tall when I photographed them two weeks ago.

The orange flower in my photo is also a Missouri native that can grow to more than 5 feet tall.

It is an annual plant that returns from new seed that bursts from its fat little seedpods with the slightest touch when the pod is ripe. This flower is the orange jewelweed, which is also known as the spotted touch-me-not.

The juice of the orange jewelweed stem is a remedy for poison ivy.

When found growing together this time of year, these two flowers present a striking color contrast.

Hummingbirds are drawn to both flowers shown here, and both flowers are excellent native flowers to plant in the wet, shady areas of your rain garden.