Oh aren't they lovely! I have several types of campanulas and they're all beautiful!

That's Campanula medium. The Campanula here is much greater.

;-)

~Christopher

Blimey, it certainly is roaring into spring........I might get a few tiny creeping bellflowers in a few weeks but not a sniff of one of the taller ones for weeks and weeks yet..........although woohoo! things are getting interesting,

Waaah! I've tried so many campanulas, so many times...they all just burn up or rot.

That's beautiful!

Genus Campanula doesn't seem to like Livermore much (or maybe it's the way I treat them) though a variety of species, short and tall, grew well in Massachusetts. I have to "get by" (though it's not such a burden) with another genus in the family, Adenophora. Adenophora potaninii grows and blooms wonderfully here through the heat of summer in indifferent soil, several flushes a season.

Love that photo, Josh -- it definitely conveys "Spring!".

Canterbury Bells (Campanula medium) is a favorite of mine, and a challenge to grow in this hot, dry climate. I love both the pink and purplish blue. If a customer at this Texas nursery buys the pictured blooming Canterbury Bells as a perennial and expects the plant to come back again next year, that person will be out of luck because Campanula medium is a biennial. I grew them from seed which meant waiting a year for blooms, and I just don't have the patience anymore. There is also a cup and saucer form, which I don't care for, but it seems to be a little easier to get around here. I've finally settled on good, old Blue Clips Campanula (carpatica). This stuff is tough as nails, laughs at heat, blooms all summer, if you shear it a little, and loves the sun, no matter what the little plastic tag says. I grow it in the hottest part of my garden. Here's a pic of one clump. Diane

I've tried rotundifolia, carpatica, persifolia, "Canterbury Bells", even the so-called rampant rampunculoides (sp?), both from seed & established plants. I could keep a couple as winter annuals, but they'd die when hot weather came (coastal zone 8).

My uncles, who could grow Popsicle sticks, did have Canterbury Bells every year. They lived in a TX zone 8 area that had wonderful deep sand & good rain--but it wasn't on the coast.

Poscharskyana has done well in shade here. Persicifolia, pyramidalis, and incurva seem to be doing alright in dappled shade, though no flowers yet from any of these three that I can recall.

Jay

I have some Campanula plants coming next month.....

'Bavarian Blue'

'Birch Hybrid'

'Dickson's Gold'

'Joan Elliott'

'Kent Belle'

and already have seeds for:

'Blue Clips'

'Telham Beauty'

I know that 'Joan Elliott' and 'Kent Belle' can be somewhat thuggish, so they'll be planted where they can duke it out with the Gallicas. The lower-growing ones will be used (along with other low-growing blue-flowered plants) to alternate with Dianthus and various Sedums, planted to spill over the log edging at the front of the beds. And 'Telham Beauty' will go wherever I think a spot could use it -- which translates to "I don't know yet."

:-)

~Christopher