How to Grow and Care for a Campanula Bellflower Plant

Interested in growing campanula bellflower plants in your garden? Here, we ask Sue Wooster, from Bellflower Nursery at The Walled Garden in Suffolk, how to grow and care for campanula, the best varieties of campanula and where best to plant them in your garden.

What is a campanula bellflower plant?

Campanula, or bellflower plants, are colourful perennials and add cheer to any garden border. Alpine natives, campanula thrive in cool nights and moderate day temperatures and bloom from June to July – although some can flower all the way into October.

Their flowers are simple and pretty, particularly the forms with single hanging bells, such as the harebell and the peach-leaved bellflower, Campanula persicifolia.

The range of colours is magnificent, from purples, mauves, soft blues and pinks through to white. These hues look wonderful in herbaceous borders and blend well with a whole host of other hardy perennials.

Where do campanulas come from originally?

They grow solely in the northern hemisphere, predominantly throughout Europe, particularly in high places such as the European Alps and in Mediterranean countries.

The British Isles has a handful of native bellflowers such as the harebell (called 'bluebell' in Scotland), Campanula rotundifolia and C. patula – the spreading bellflower – which sadly only grows now in one or two pockets along the Welsh borders.