They are horribly invasive in my zone 2; don't know whether it would be even more so in a warmer zone. You can never get rid of this plant, every little bit of root survives. I didn't even plant it...it just showed up one day and I've been battling it for years.

Even in zone 6, I thought it was too invasive to keep, though not that hard to eradicate since I didn't let it spread but a year or two.

It was in the yard when we bought our house in 1965 and it's still here, if you leave even a smiggen of root it comes back with a vengeance. Good Luck getting rid of it.

Annette

Believe me, you DO NOT want to introduce this into your garden! It will find its way and sprout up among every plant and shrub you have. Each flower on the tall raceme is packed with seeds that scatter everywhere if you let them. Not to mention the underground root system which is nearly impossible to eradicate without constant digging.

I'm finally almost winning now after about ten years of constant vigilance.

I have it. Frankly, after battling with acres of brambles, nothing really bothers me much now....and if it really gets out of hand, I will drag my faithful knapsack sprayer out and shower liquid death down.

Of course, I have acreage......I would never plant this in my 36square metre garden.

There are better campanulas, lilsprout, which are every bit as gracile, electric and bloomy. You could do start with the ever so reliable (but equally seedy without the rhizome) campanula persicifolia, look at c.latiloba, c.Sarastro or Kent Belle, but the best, in my view, especially if you can get hold of the sterile double 'Bernice' is C.trachelium, aka bats in the belfry or nettle leaved bellflower.
Finally, C.rapunculus, aka rampion, is the most alike, without the root problem.....indeed, the roots are edible!.

Lilsprout: You DO NOT want to have this in your garden. I have only recently identified it, and am battling with it. I did not plant it: it 'walked' from my neighbour behind me, all the way up the west side of our property, and is now making it's way across the front lawn toward the other side of the property. Just today I found some choking out a few Chelone that just would not thrive. For the past 3 years, I have been ripping the blooms out by the stem thinking that would destroy it, but now I realize that it has really taken hold. I will be digging the rest of the summer to remove as much as the root system as I can but it has even grown under my patio (about 30 feet) and is sending up shoots on the other side. A thug if there ever was one.

Same here, I posted a thread not long ago, looking for help getting rid of it.

Thank you all. I'm sure glad I asked!

Will call my SIL today. Not sure how long she has had hers, she didn't seem to have too much....yet!

Camp, thanks for the suggestions. I really like c latiloba.

This post was edited by lilsprout on Mon, Jul 14, 14 at 6:59

C rapunculoides is truly garden cancer. I am making headway eradicating it. The tops snap off easily, and if you keep pulling them, the plant gets weaker. Then, 2 4-D (Weed B-Gone) does work on them. Try to get them just as they poke up early in the season. Or, with care, you can bend the stems down that come up in other perennials and spray just those parts of the plant. (Use big pieces of cardboard to mask your desirable plants.) Never let them go to seed. Avoid roto-tilling them up, because you only get more of them. Sad, though. They are pretty. But in some ways almost all the Campanula are seedy and invasive. I have C. latifolia everywhere. It's a 5-foot tall one that is quite showy for a short time, but then becomes a brown ugly thing. Its seeds go everywhere too. But at least it does not have runners. C trachelium I also have, and it was pesty for a while too, but no runners.

I found this a big help when I was trying to find out what I really had.

http://www.robsplants.com/plants/adenophora.php

Thank you for that link, aftermidnight! At last a way to test whether Adenophora is actually Adenophora. Though I don't need to dissect a flower to know that the pretty bluebells I have been trying to get rid of for 15 years, are the evil Campanula :-(.