Bellflower or Campanula Flower

Bellflower is also called Campanula, whatever kind of flower garden you have; there is a bellflower for you. The flowers vary considerably in shape and size; though most are blue colors, however some are violet or purple, and some are white. They are extremely beautiful in pastel gardens, with roses, or just anywhere you want to a blue accent. Some grow on plants of mid- border height, others on low cushions, and others on long, trailing stems. Most bloom in early summer, but some, especially the low growing varieties will continue to flower, though less heavily, throughout the season. 

Campanula persicifolia “Grandiflora”, the popular peach leaved bellflower, is available in blue varieties such as “Telham Beauty” and a white one “Alba”. It grows almost two to three feet tall. C. glomerata also grows up to two feet; its variety “Superba” is a wonderful rich purple, “Crown of Snow” is white. Moreover low growing bellflowers include C. carpatica, blue or white, six to 10 inches and C. poscharskyana, lavender, 12 inches tall but sprawling C. rotundifolia is blue and one to two feet, but he variety “Olympica” is more compact. This last species can be eddy in some gardens. 

Well, if you really like to grow this beautiful bellflower, then the plant like sun but will do well in light shade, particularly in hot climates. Also give some moist, moderately fertile, well-drained soil. Sometimes slug control may be necessary. Weed out the invasive types as needed; cut back tall varieties after flowering to encourage them to bloom again. Source: Charismatic Planet

Peony Flower

Peony flowers are classified as “doubles” huge round balls with many petals, however semi-doubles with fewer petals and “single” with one sparser row of overlapping petals surrounding a handsome cluster of gold stamens in the center and “Japanese’s” single with a nest of showy, petal like stamens in the center. Moreover colors range from dark maroon, to bright red, to pink, to white and occasionally yellow. Many especially the pale ones, are fragrant. 

They grow on long, arching stems in a mound of dark green foliage about three feet high and three feet wide. The plants do not bloom for long, although you can choose varieties that bloom for several overlapping periods, and the foliage is attractive all summer and into fall, when it turns a pleasing gold color. Paeonia tenuifolia (fern-leaved peony) is low growing and admired for both its handsome foliage and its dark red flowers. “Tree peonies” are really shrubs that grow into a mound about five feet high and five feet wide; there is a wider range of flower colors among the tree peonies than with the herbaceous kind, including yellows, golds and some with spectacular streaked markings. 

By choosing a selection of early, midseason and late varieties you can keep a peony bed in bloom for as long as six weeks, this is a good idea because they make a good cut flower as well as a grand show in the garden. Some of the many hybrid peony varieties are Kansas a bright red double Festiva Maxima a beautiful variety over hundred years old, which is a white-flecked double with traces of red; and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt a pale pink double.

If you want to grow “Peonies” then you should plant in fall in deep, well-drained soil enriched with organic matter. Thus, making sure the eyes is no more than two inches below the soil surface, because planting too deep may result in failure to bloom. Peonies usually do very well when planted right, even though they may take a few years to get established and bloom well. They are not suitable for climates with very warm winters. 

Staking with peony rings will keep the blooms more attractive, particularly when it rains. If you have planted your peonies correctly and they still do not bloom after several years, other conditions may be at fault, such as excessive moisture or drought, too much heat or too much shade, as well as various pests and diseases. To keep plants healthy, always clean up dead foliage at the season’s end. Heavy feeding may also encourage the plants to bloom. Dig a trowelful of a balanced fertilizer into the soil around each one in early spring and again after flowering. Source: Charismatic Planet

Grow Aster Flower for a Majestic of Fall Colors

The glory of the fall garden, asters range in height from six tall to just above the ground. Colors are shades of purple, lavender, pink, red blue and white. They are hardy, the plants tend to be very vigorous, and some are even invasive. Most garden hybrids are derived from one of two native species. From Aster novaeangliae (New England aster) come “Harrington’s Pink” pale to medium pink and up to six feet tall, and “Alma Potschke” which is three feet tall and a strong pink. From A. novibelgii (New York Aster) come many varieties including Marie Ballard, light blue, three to four feet, and Crimson Brocade reddish pink three feet approx. Moreover Eventide purple three to four feet, Dwarf varieties include Snow Flurry which is white, and Audrey which is blue violet. A. x Frikartii is a very long blooming aster that begins flowering in summer and grows two to three feet tall.

How to Grow Aster

Well, if you want to grown Aster, then asters like moist but well drained soil and plenty of sun as well. Most from big clumps that are best divided every few years by replanting shoots from the outside of the clumps.  Tall varieties must often be staked, but the stems can be pinched early in the season to make the plants more erect as well as more compact and free flowering. This may, however, delay in bloom. With some of the dwarf varieties you must remove some plants each year to prevent them from taking over. Moreover, mulch varieties those are not winter hardy in your zone with evergreen boughs. Remove self-sown seedlings, for they will not come up the same color as the parent plant if they are hybrids and not an original species. Source: Charismatic Planet

Balloon Flower: Decorate Home and Garden

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. 

 Source: Charismatic Planet

How to Grow Pulmonaria Flower

This plant used to be called “lungwort” because its spotted leaves resembled diseased lungs and, in the homeopathic tradition of folk medicine, were thus supposed to be able to cure diseased lungs. Fortunately the plant has more demonstrable virtues. It spreads vigorously by creeping rhizomes, its broad leaves make it very attractive as a ground cover planting and on top of that it bears beautiful clusters of tube shaped flowers in spring, which generally open pink and turn to blue, resulting in both pink and blue flowers in the same cluster.

Pulmonaria angustifolia is low growing under 10 inches and has leaves that are not spotted; popular varieties are Johnson Blue and the white Alba. P. saccharata, called Bethlehm sage, grows as tall as 15 inches. There’re so many gardeners whose like the variety and whose blue flowers and spotted leaves are both large and very showy. If you find you get along well with pulmonarias, there are a number of other, less familiar species worth trying.

Well, if you want to grow Pulmonaria, then you need a truly shade loving plant and will wilt in sun. Even the morning sun that mine gets makes it wilt in hot weather. Soil need not be rich, but it should be full of organic matter to help it to hold moisture. Plants are easily divided in early spring but should be watered well after transplanting. Source: Charismatic Planet

How to Grow Iris

The most familiar member of this group is the bearded iris (Iris x germanica) that blooms in late spring. The large, handsome flowers are composed of three ruffled petals called standards, which stand upright, and three petals called falls, which hang down. The range of color is extraordinary every color except bright red; sometimes the falls and standards are colored differently. The gray green sword like leaves is easy to hide with other plants after the flowers have bloomed so they will not take up visual space. For this reason you need to use iris in the border, although other gardeners prefer to mass them by themselves, which creates a lovely effect. Heights range from to four feet. 

The two other types well worth exploring are Siberian Iris (I. sibirica) and Japanese iris (I. ensata, also called I. kaempferi). Siberian iris quickly forms large clumps of slender upright leaves. The flowers are more dainty than those of bearded iris; shades include blues, purples, rose and white, some with exquisitely veined markings. Japanese iris is same; however the flowers are much larger and bloom a bit later. 

Well, if you want to grow iris, then roots of bearded iris are fat rhizomes that are prone to rot and to infestation by root maggots. I fight both problems by dipping the roots in a ten to one chlorine solution whenever dig them up to divide them, but the best prevention for rot and maggots is to plant the roots so that the tops are visible. You can plant them on a soil mound if drainage is less than perfect. They like fairly rich, alkaline soil and are generally planted in later summer. 

The roots of Japanese and Siberian iris are long and stringy. The plants like moist, slightly acid soil that is rich in humus. Divide Japanese iris every few years. Siberian clumps can be left undisturbed, but for purposes of propagation, divide with a sharp spade or digging fork. The roots of old clumps become densely matted together but can be pried apart with two digging forks worked back to back. 

Pink Dianthus

These flowers are often pink, but are sometimes shades of red or white as well. Sometimes flowers are marked with several in colors. Some are shaped like small carnations to which pinks are related while the others have fewer petals, sometimes with ragged edges. Some have a pleasant clovelike scent. The foliage is often very pretty, usually in shades of grayish or bluish green. Moreover pinks are normally short and many grow close to the ground in matlike carpets. 

The tallest are rarely more than one and half feet high. They normally flowers in spring or early summer, but some continue to produce blooms all summer, especially if cut back. Maiden pink called Dianthus deltoides produce tiny single dark pink or white flowers on short stems in late spring, and self-sows. Gras pink (D. plumarius) is usually about a foot tall, with bliish foliage and multicolored flowers. Cheddar pink (D. gratianopolitanus also called D. caesius), is a low growing spreading pink flower with grayish leaves the variety "Tiny Rubies" is very low and abundant with bright pink flowers. D. x allwoodii hybrids such as "Doris" and "Ian" have larger flowers and are hardy only to but the low growing variety "Alpinus" is hardy. In warm climates you can grow carnations, also called clover pinks (D. caryophyllus). Sweet William (D. Barbatus) is a tender perennial best treated as a biennial or self-sowing annual. 

 

How to Grow Pinks Dianthus

All pinks need excellent drainage and prefer slightly alkaline soil. Do not mulch the crowns. Remove spent flowers to encourage rebloom, and cut back long stemmed varieties if they get dry and scraggly in midsummer. Mat forming varieties can be left alone unless they take up too much space, but clump forming ones such as carnations and the Dianthus x allwoodii hybrids may need to be divided every few years to keep them attractive and vigorous. They can also be increased by layering or taking cuttings.