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Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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Posted by
pickindaisies none (
My Page) on
Mon, Jul 16, 12 at 8:37
| A friend of mine planted "purple balloon flowers" last year and I love how the colors and the size of the plant are. I know nothing of them and was thinking of planting them as a perennial in an area that is part shade and has some pines nearby. Anyone that has any experience with these would be greatly appreciated! |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| I like them. Buy them as plants as they are very slow from seeds. Al |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| my experience with them in MI .. was that they were rather short lived .. dont know where you are ken |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| I've been growing 'Sentimental Blue' for many years. Here are some pics: 
The plant is tap rooted so once established, it's no fuss. Taller varieties may need staking. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| Mine grow fine in part shade, but they need at least a half day of sun. They are late to emerge in Spring so be careful about digging near them. They also do not like wet feet so be sure the soil is nicely drained. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| The more sun they can get, the better. With too much shade they tend to get leggy and floppy. In sun they're a great perennial--bloom a long time and are hardly bothered by any pests (except rabbits seem to like them!) |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| I grew mine from seed (I don't remember them being particularly slow, though?) and they are in part sun. They can probably stand a tad more sun because a few of them do flop a bit, but I guess there's enough sun in my spot to make it doable (for me) - probably about 4 hours of sun. I love them! I let mine go to seed and have gotten some volunteers. Dee |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| They're best in full sun. Taller forms may need to be staked, or can be trimmed back early in the season for more compact plants (ditto on their being late risers). The stumpy "Sentimental Blue" has largely taken over the commercial market, but taller varieties are more graceful and appealing in my book. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| I think I may be the only person on the planet who does not like these. I find nothing appealing about the flower shape, colors - nothing. Let the hate comments begin. Kevin |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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- Posted by mxk3 z5b/6 MI (My Page) on
Mon, Jul 16, 12 at 17:28
| I love "Sentimental Blue" - a truly short plant that stays short yet has very large flowers in proportion to the plant and oh the color! The foliage stays nice and nothing bothers them (insects or diseases) that I've ever noticed. Great edging plant. I also have the taller cultivars - I think they are "Astra" series bout not sure. Like those as well, but they do need some sort of support or will flop. These puppies are long-lived as far as I can tell and TOUGH plants, I've had the same clumps the entire time I've been at this house, 13 years. "They" say you shouldn't move them because of the tap root...pfffttt - I've moved mine around the yard so many times I can't even count and like I said, they're still going... |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| I too prefer the tall ones--graceful and long blooming and easy to deadhead--in fact the ONLY plant in my very large gardens that I do bother to deadhead. They are gorgeous with orange Pardancandas. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| My 'Sentimental Blue' isn't all that short most years. Last year it was a good two feet high. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| a2zmom, likely the grower mislabeled yours. It happens quite a bit. I've heard of 'Sentimental Blue' being 12" high, but two feet sounds like it is a different cultivar such as 'Mariesii.' |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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Well, we have major rabbit issues! Maybe this wouldn't be the best plant!!! I'm curious to try a few though and see. . . .
I am in Michigan |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| Many years ago, I grew Sentimental Blue from seed. It sounded 'different' since at that time most of the balloonflowers for sale were about 4 ft tall. It has since seeded around a fair amount, and every now and then one of the seedlings gets close to normal height. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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- Posted by mxk3 z5b/6 MI (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 18, 12 at 17:30
| "Sentimental Blue", like I mentioned, *is* a true dwarf. None of mine have ever gotten near 1 foot tall; they are only ~6" tall, if that. If it's taller and labeled as S.B., they were definitely mislabeled/mispackaged :0/ |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| mxk3, I have three of them and each is a different height! One is quite short, the middle one s ranges between a foot and eighteen inches and the third one gets pretty tall. I normally chalk it up to plants being unpredictable, but who knows? It could have been mislabeled. pickindaisies, bunnies have never eaten mine and I certainly have a lot of them. Maybe mine are too busy eating my Centurea montana to bother with my balloon flowers. |
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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| I found the linked study informative. Their 'Sentimental Blue' got 12 inches tall. Mine are about 10 inches but they tend to lay down a bit, making them appear shorter. Their 'Mariesii' cultivar was disqualified because it was mislabeled. Seems to be a common theme with these. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Platycodon Cultivar Comparison
RE: Purple Balloon flowers - who has experience?
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- Posted by ditas z 4b-5 Iowa (My Page) on
Wed, Jul 18, 12 at 23:19
| I planted both Sentimental Blue (short) & (tall) Shell Pink 11 years ago ~ I have them every where now as they do seed (if not dead headed). SB seem to behave differently in the different sites I eventually planted them from seeds. I have one that is enormous (2ft) both in hgt & clump & others stay as low as 8" others even showed up pink balloons along w/ the blues! Shell Pink, I call Vanessa in honor of an Angel, stayed true to her tall, elegant lady that she is! Has also sprouted seedlings I have shared & planted in other beds. I'm retired & have the time to dead head, nearly daily (whew) even thru this past wks of ~heat~wave~ they look better w/o the wilted spent blooms! FWIW! |
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