Beguiling Bellflowers
by Rand B. Lee

If you like campanulas, you will enjoy growing some of their charming and lesser known relatives in the bellflower family.

Only another plant nut would understand this, but some years ago, I conceived the mad notion of growing every bellflower species in the world. Then I did a little research—and quailed. For most of us, the name bellflower brings to mind the genus Campanula. Yet it turns out that the bellflower family (Campanulaceae) also contains 85 or so lesser-known genera distributed widely among both temperate and tropical regions. Taken together, these genera comprise well over 1,000 upright or climbing annuals, biennials, perennials, shrubs, and trees—far too many wonderful plants for anybody to grow in one garden, and far too many plants to cover in the scope of one article.

Because the true bellflowers have been well covered in other articles, I want to focus here on a few of my favorite Campanula relatives that I feel are undeservedly overshadowed by their more famous cousins. Most of the plants described here are suited to the mixed perennial border, but a few are best relegated to the rockery (I have reserved the rock garden types—along with a couple of tender exotics—for the chart on page 39.) The one Campanula relative I have omitted entirely is the genus Lobelia, which is so large and important that it merits its own article; look for that in a future issue.

FAMILY TRAITS

When exploring a plant family for the first time, I always ask myself, “What do the members have in common?” Most bellflowers possess a milky sap, which oozes out alarmingly when you pinch off a bud or branchlet; simple leaves that alternate up their stems; and bisexual, usually scentless flowers in which the petals have fused to create the five-lobed corollas that give bellflowers their name and charm. And while the blossoms are usually blue leaning toward lavender, bellflowers can also be white, lilac, pink, cream, true blue, or ruby. Some forms bear double blossoms.
Not all bellflowers have bell-like blossoms. The buds of Platycodon resemble unpopped balloons. The blooms of Trachelium are clustered in rounded plates, like those of Queen Anne’s lace. The flowers of Jasione and Phyteuma appear as little clustered balls of blue. The flowers of what I call the Isotoma-Laurentia-Pratia-Solenopsis complex (because a complex is what you get trying to sort out the differences in these extremely similar genera) are exceedingly minute stars.

LADYBELLS

The ladybells or gland bellflowers (Adenophora spp.) look so much like true bellflowers that you can only really tell them apart from campanulas by dissecting one of the blossoms: If you find a cup-shaped or tubular disk around the base of the style, you’ve got an Adenophora. There are around 40 species in the genus, all possessed of fleshy, division-resenting roots (which is why they are almost always propagated from seed). Most are native to Asia, and while their long-livedness and readiness to set and spread from seed has given them a reputation for being mildly invasive, I have not found them so.

The first Campanula relative I ever grew was the lilyleaf ladybell, Adenophora liliifolia (syn. A. liliiflora, A. fischeri, USDA Zones 3–8, AHS Zones 7–1). It is a tough, drought-tolerant, heat-resistant perennial that got along famously (with supplemental water) in my Santa Fe garden. It gets 18 inches tall by about a foot wide, with longish, narrow, pointed, lilylike leaves and upright spikes of nodding, bell-shaped, lavender-blue flowers much of the summer if deadheaded.

A. bulleyana (Zones 4–8, 8–1) is noteworthy not only for its 40-inch summer spikes of one-half to three-quarter-inch soft lavender-blue bells (often held in groups of three), but also for its serrated, willowy foliage, which is flushed an exquisite reddish-gold in spring to early summer. Adenophora ‘Amethyst’ (Zones 2–9, 9–1), a hybrid, bears large, nodding, purplish blue flowers in early to midsummer, arranged in pleasing symmetry around its three-foot stems. A. remotiflora (Zones 5–8, 8–1) makes three-foot-by-two-foot clumps, with long oval leaves to eight inches and large, drooping panicles of many bell-shaped, bluish flowers an inch or more wide. ‘Alba’ is a white-flowered cultivar. A. triphylla (syn. A. verticillata, Zones 7–9, 9–1) is a native of moist, acidic woodlands, standing up to three feet tall, with four-inch leaves usually held in whorls of four; its loose, stem-encircling clusters of hanging pale blue to violet blossoms appear from July to October.

HORNED RAMPIONS

The horned rampions (Phyteuma spp.) is a genus of around 40 perennial species with spikes or heads of small white, cream, blue, or violet blossoms. Their “horns” are derived from the prominent, narrow, pointed bracts that surround their flowers and from the odd tendency of some of their blossoms to join at their petal-tips. Their lax stems and numerous flowers create a pleasant blue mist.

Phyteuma spicatum (Zones 5–9, 9–5), the spiked rampion, is perhaps the most upright species. The leaves composing its one-foot-wide basal clumps are oval to heart-shaped, double-toothed, and one to two inches wide. Its white, cream, or (occasionally) blue flowers, which are narrowly bracted, are held in densely clothed, one- to two-and-one-half-foot scepters in summer.

Phyteuma scheuchzeri (Zones 5–7, 7–1) is a long-lived shade lover from the Alps. It makes one-foot wide clumps of rather handsome, lancelike basal leaves, from which arise in summer thin, lolling, six- to 18-inch stems topped with one-inch, ball-like, dark violet-blue flower clusters. The roundheaded rampion, P. orbiculare (Zones 6–9, 9–6), is native to dry European grasslands. In summer, its clumps of four-inch, serrated, lancelike to heart-shaped leaves sport upright, 20-inch spikes ending in pointy-bracted, dense, globular clusters of dark blue to violet flowers. P. nigrum (Zones 6–9, 9–6) is an upright 10- to 20-inch-tall species from central Europe. Its lower leaves are bluntly heart-shaped, about two inches long, and its distinctive blossoms are pointy-bracted, curving dramatically in bud, and opening to a very dark, nearly black violet.

BALLOON FLOWER

Chinese bellflower (Platycodon grandiflorus, Zones 4–9, 9–1), the only member of its genus, is better known by its old-fashioned name of balloon flower. Native to hilly regions of Korea, eastern Siberia, and northern China, where it is cultivated for medicinal purposes, Chinese bellflower’s thick roots sprout 16- to 40-inch stems clothed with pointed, oval, green leaves. They are topped late summer to early fall with large bluish, white, or pink five-lobed bells opening from nearly spherical buds. Very drought tolerant once established, balloon flower grows best in sandy or well-drained soils. The plants die back completely in the winter and are late to come up in spring, so it’s best to mark their spot to avoid inadvertently digging them up. …

THROATWORTS

Throatworts (Trachelium spp.) are so-called from the plants’ supposed ancient use against tracheal diseases. The florets are composed of five, exceedingly tiny, spreading lobes, just like the big bellflowers. The overall effect is not bellish, however, but Queen Anne’s lace-ish, making it useful for the cutting garden.…


Photo credits: Adenophora lillifolia by Jerry Pavia. Phyteuma scheuchzeri by Joseph G. Strauch Jr.

If you are an AHS member, you can read this article in its entirety
by clicking here.

If you are not an AHS member and would like to join, click here.