Balloon Flower or Platycodon
grandiflorus is a fine old fashioned plant with flower the shape of open bells,
some single and some double, in colors that are never garish blue, pink or
white. It is perfect for the English garden look. It blooms in midsummer on
stems that are normally two or three feet tall. Mariesii is a short blue
variety with single flowers, one and half feet tall. However, shell pink is a
popular pink variety and Album is white.
How to Grow Balloon Flower?
Well if you want to grow Balloon
Flower, then make sure sun is preferable, but platycodon will tolerate some
shade. Provide light, slightly acid, moist but well drained soil. Sandy soils
are more suitable than clay. The plant forms long lived clumps that do not
require division, though it may be done in spring if you dig out the long
taproot very carefully. Moreover you must watch out for the shoots which are
slow to emerge in spring. Don’t trample them when you are working the soil in
their general vicinity. You can mark the spot in fall as a safeguard.
