I'll, uh, third that - amazing, SB! I'm going to have to get that one for sure. I have a few campanulas I'm starting from seeds. I HAD (bold, italic, underline, underline, underline) two campanulas I got from a plant exchange two years ago... one was "lady bells" the other "cluster bells". Well the clusterbells fell victim to a windy day that knocked their little pot over, snapped it in half and it never quite recovered or came back after proper planting. The lady bells... rude puppy grabbed the little container it was in and took off with it. So I'm hoping mine will go better this year and I'll report back on them, happily (hopefully)

well not at all. The only problematic campanulas I am aware of are the famously dreadful C.Rapunculoides - I love it and risk it although I have a clone which does not run everywhere)) and the running C.takesimana. Have heard that C.allarifolia can be bit dodgy too. C.pocharskya (one of the creeping ones) will spread but is so easy to just take a large handful and a gentle tug and it is under control. Symphyandra, a close relative, will run about and I think that some of the adenophoras are a bit naughty -not commonly grown in the UK for some reason. The most irritating thing about C.glomerata is its tendency to fall over - and it always looks a bit weird if staked. I think if you grow it hard, it will be better.

Gardening is really a fascinating (& frustrating) experience. I could not even get 3 plants of campanula persificolia to overwinter in an amended clay bed near my house (upper part of the yard with the best drainage). Certainly can't imagine it being invasive. LOL. I also can't imagine nice loose soil that looks like yours Eigdeh :~) Great job! Don't you know soil is this dense sticky stuff you cut out with a sharp spade in spring or take a pick-axe to in summer! C. glomerata, which is invasive for many, can survive and even spread a bit in a ground level bed in my yard and I did manage after several tries to get milky bellflower going in a highly amended somewhat raised bed.

Yes, but ... 'always' is a pretty strong word, and inaccurate when applied to all brides everywhere. There isn't ANYTHING that brides ALWAYS like! Lisianthus is always the favored choice of your brides, apparently, and probably florists' brides, because that's what they have, and what's traditional - for florists, that is! If I were growing wholesale or selling to florists, I'd grow what they wanted, but I have always purposely offered things florists don't - if they want florist flowers, they don't need me. I don't grow lisianthus - it doesn't like cold nights - so it was never a choice for my brides. Besides, it's really a different product. The persicifolia bells dangle delicately outward and downward, with a little movement to the stem in the breeze, more like a real bell, whereas lisianthus faces up and is rigid. Brides usually came to my farm the week before the wedding and picked out their own flowers. White persicifolia always got oohs and aahs and were must-haves. By the way, I've tried Telham Beauty and found it disease-prone and sickly. Plain white and plain purple persicifolia do very well here and look much nicer. The Telham Beauty flowers don't look as nice in person as they do in catalogs. In real life, their white is slightly muddy and their supposed pale blue edge is more grayish. Campanula glomerata and persicifolia probably do just love the climate here: cold nights, no humidity at all, short summer. I can harvest it into late July or August, at which point it's still blooming but the stems have gotten too thin and flimsy to cut. And it's in absolute full sun. There are a few benefits to our cold nights..... Jeanne