10 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



August, 1911 



among bellflowers is purple or violet, and 

 it is easy to get blue, rose and white vari- 

 eties. Doubleness is of advantage chiefly in 

 making the flowers last longer, both in 

 the garden and as cut flowers. The 

 everblooming habit is hard to get in per- 

 ennial flowers, which, as a rule, bloom only 

 a week or two. Therefore, the reader 

 may assume that every Campanula is 

 available in three or four colors (unless 

 normally white) and that the bewildering 

 array of varieties under every species 

 represent some slight improvement along 

 the lines above mentioned. 



For instance, C. persicifolia, var. mac- 

 rantha is a large-flowered variety with 

 flowers all along the stem. The varieties 

 most advertised are Moerheimi (See No. i) 

 and Backhousei, both with double white 

 flowers. Moerheim's variety has camellia- 

 like flowers, two and a half inches across 

 and blooming (in the catalogues, at least) 

 from May to late July. Backhouse's 

 variety has fifteen to twenty flowers on a 

 stem open at a time, and the flowers are 

 claimed to be "fully three times the size 

 of the type." 



The other big cup-shaped flower is the 

 Chinese or Japanese bellflower, also known 

 as the balloon flower or Campanula grandi- 

 flora. Its correct name is Platycodon 

 grandiflorum. The botanists have to put 

 it in a different genus because its stamens 

 are dilated at the base and the seed pod 

 opens in a different way, but from the 

 human or garden view-point it is a bell- 

 flower differing chiefly in its large, in- 

 flated buds which excite universal interest. 

 It has, however, one serious "kink" in 

 its culture, viz., its brittle stems and roots. 

 Consequently many people complain that 

 it is difficult to multiply. The best plan 



r 



8. Bluebells of Scotland (Campanula rotundifolia) 



is to stake the stems during the growing 

 season, for if once allowed to fall they 

 can hardly be raised without breaking. 

 These old stems should not be cut away 

 in the fall as the crown is too easily in- 

 jured. The plant is at its best the third, 

 fourth and fifth years from seed. 



THE BELL-SHAPED CAMPANULAS 



A few other species have flat flowers — 

 as flat as a saucer, but all the others I 

 shall describe are bell-shaped, unless other- 

 wise stated. 



The milky blue bellflower (C. lactiflora) 

 has a unique color which is easy to recog- 

 nize, but hard to describe — a pale blue, 

 suffused with lavender. The English peo- 

 ple have taken a great fancy to it, and a 

 well grown clump five feet high and four 

 feet across is a fine sight when covered 

 with hundreds of flowers. To produce 

 such specimens requires liberal feeding, 

 watering and careful staking. 



Another unique species is the clustered 

 bellflower (C. glomerata) which does not 

 bear its flowers in racemes, like the others, 

 but has them crowded into a roundish 

 head. (See No. 3). This sounds attrac- 

 tive to the beginner, but the plant is 

 neither very showy nor beautiful. It 

 grows only a foot or two high. This is 

 about the only species that seems to have 

 no white flowered variety. 



THE APPENDAGED BELLFLOWER 



We now come to three curious bell- 

 flowers which have singular tooth-like 

 projections at the base of each sinus of 

 the flower. These projections are par- 

 ticularly noticeable in the plaited buds. 



The most famous of them is C. alliarice- 

 folia, a species that always has a white 

 flower, which is about two inches long. 

 (See No. 6). The flower is exquisite in 

 itself, but unfortunately the plant needs 

 staking and is shabby when out of bloom. 



The gray-leaved bellflower (C. Sarmatica) 

 has a flower about half the length of the 

 preceding. 



The Hungarian bellflower (C. Grossekii) 

 has a violet flower and is alleged to bloom 

 all summer, but in my experience the 

 everblooming qualities of bellflowers are 

 considerably exaggerated. 



WILD GARDEN BELLFLOWERS 



The beauty of the wild garden is that 

 you can grow in it plants that are lovely 

 of flower but objectionable in habit. 

 There are four bellflowers that are espe- 

 cially suited for woods, roadsides, shady 

 places and poor soil, because they can take 

 care of themselves in a rough and tumble 

 fight. Their leaves are too coarse for a 

 refined garden and after blooming they 

 look too seedy. 



The broad-leaved bellflower (C. latifolia) 

 has the largest leaves of all Campanulas 

 the stem-leaves often attaining 2 x 3! in. 

 Also it has the largest flowers of the wild- 

 garden group — two inches or more long. 

 Its variety macrantha has still larger 

 flowers and the variety Van Houttei is 



9. The big-styled bellflower (Campanula macrostyla} 



said to have a better blue. The next 

 three species have flowers only an inch 

 long. 



Coventry bells (C. Trachelium) is prob- 

 ably the toughest member of the genus, 

 as it commonly escapes from old gardens, 

 runs wild along the roadsides, forms big 

 colonies by deserted homesteads, and has 

 been known to hold its own against the 

 grass for over a century. It has hairy, 

 purple flowers about an inch long, and 

 from twelve to eighteen of them on a stem. 

 You will probably buy this old cottage 

 garden plant under a dozen high-toned 

 names, because in nurseries it spreads over 

 the whole Campanula patch whenever 

 the choicer varieties are sold out or de- 

 stroyed by a bad winter, or some one gets 

 careless. 



The rampion-like bellflower (C rapun- 

 culoides) differs chiefly in having nodding 

 flowers (See No. 4). One August I saw 

 it at South Orange, N. J., and Mr. Manda 

 called my attention to the fact that it 

 blooms from the top of the spike first. The 

 plant was past its prime then, but there 

 were a few blossoms on side shoots. 



The rhomboid bellflower (C. rhom- 

 boidalis) is a smaller plant, usually only a 

 foot high, and the clusters are so broad 

 that they are more like a corymb than a 

 raceme. Unhappily the stems and leaves 

 die down quickly after blooming. 



BELLFLOWERS FOR EDGING 



So far we have dealt only with relatively 

 tall species — plants growing two or three 

 feet high or more. All the others that I 

 shall mention have their height measured 

 by inches and rarely attain a foot. I 

 remember how shocked my worthy 



