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Other Names:  Bellflower

Description:

Beautiful light purple-blue bells resemble miniature tea cups sitting on a saucer; allow this biennial to self-seed for future years; cutting back may encourage re-blooming; perfect for beds and borders; an excellent, long lasting cut flower

Ornamental Features

Champion Blue Canterbury Bells features airy spikes of purple bell-shaped flowers at the ends of the stems from early summer to early fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its small narrow leaves remain dark green in color throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Champion Blue Canterbury Bells is an herbaceous biennial with tall flower stalks held atop a low mound of foliage. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It is a good choice for attracting bees and butterflies to your yard. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Champion Blue Canterbury Bells is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• Border Edging
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Champion Blue Canterbury Bells will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity extending to 3 feet tall with the flowers, with a spread of 12 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. The flower stalks can be weak and so it may require staking in exposed sites or excessively rich soils. It grows at a medium rate, and tends to be biennial, meaning that it puts on vegetative growth the first year, flowers the second, and then dies.

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It may require supplemental watering during periods of drought or extended heat. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by cuttings; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Champion Blue Canterbury Bells is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. With its upright habit of growth, it is best suited for use as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the center of the pot, surrounded by smaller plants and those that spill over the edges. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.