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Campanula ephesia ex SDR1111

Campanulaceae

Campanula ephesia growth habit

Habitat: dry crevices, sunny

Flowering: summer

Height: 40 cm

Width: 25 cm

Soil: poor and gritty, limestone

All these small campanulas have masses of bell-shaped flowers, in the blue / purple / white colour range, in mid or late summer. Most of the small species are plants for sunny, well-drained positions on rockeries or raised beds, and many can be grown in walls by scattering seed. Some have a distinct preference for limestone, and a few need to avoid winter wet. See also Adenophora and Edraianthus for some related species, and Codonopsis for some climbing relatives. Also Cyananthus for some fine, low plants with trailing stems.

Campanula ephesia ex SDR1111 has silvery grey leaves in a flat rosette, but the flowering stem is tall and branched, with very large pale blue flowers, produced for several months. It grows in vertical crevices in walls, or on the flat with the protection of an alpine house. Monocarpic, but we throw seed at a wall, where it continues to flourish. The name can't be guaranteed, partly because published descriptions vary so much.
1 litre pot £5.00

		Campanula bellidifolia subsp. saxifraga has large, upfacing violet-blue flowers with a white centre. Clump-forming, slightly hairy green leaves. Although it can be a little fussy as it dislikes winter wet and disturbance to roots once established, it is worth persevering for the flowers.
		Campanula dolomitica comes from the Caucasus, not from the Dolomites. It makes mounds of dark green foliage and has short stems with creamy coloured flowers, quite unusual in this genus.
		Campanula ephesia has wonderful flat rosettes of silvery grey hairy leaves, and when the time to flower arrives it sends up a relatively tall, branched stem, with huge pale blue flowers, which continue over several months. It grows in vertical crevices in walls, or on the flat with the protection of an alpine house. Monocarpic, but we throw seed at a wall, where it continues to flourish. The name can't be guaranteed, partly because published descriptions vary so much.
		Campanula fenestrellata subsp. istriaca is a particularly dainty plant ideal for the rock garden. It has masses of small blue flowers on a mat of hairy serrated leaves. It originates in Croatia.
		Campanula garganica makes tufts or clumps of spreading stems, with starry blue flowers with white centres. In the wild (in Greece and Italy) it grows among shady rocks, but in cultivation, at least in the UK, it prefers full sun.
		Campanula glomerata var. acaulis has nice big clusters of showy purple flowers. For a smaller species it has quite long, but narrow, green leaves.
		Campanula incurva is a short-lived or biennial species with rosettes of grey-green, hairy rosettes, from which arises the spike of large, pale blue bell flowers.
		Campanula moesiaca is rather like a biennial Campanula glomerata, with erect flowering stems bearing clusters of narrow lilac blue bells. The foliage is deep green, in a good-looking rosette of serrated leaves.
		Campanula poscharskyana is very easy and its name is well known, but it isn't as widely grown as it deserves. It has trailing stems, so many that they build up into a green mound, with lots and lots of pale purple flowers.
		Campanula poscharskyana 'E. H. Frost' makes a great mound of trailing stems, covered with pointed-petalled flowers, which are not quite pure white, but the palest possible blue.