Campanula poscharskyana seeds - Trailing bellflower

Campanula poscharskyana, the wall bellflower, is a highly floriferous perennial groundcover, perfect for clothing rock gardens, walls and paving joints. Native to the limestone mountains of the Balkans, it is perfectly hardy and undemanding. Its small star-shaped mauve-blue flowers, which appear in masses from May to September, brighten sunny to partially shaded spots in the garden.

This bellflower belongs to the Campanulaceae family. It is a botanical species sometimes confused with the Dalmatian bellflower (Campanula portenschlagiana), which it resembles. It is found in the wild in the Dinaric Alps of the north-western Balkans, mainly in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro, on limestone cliffs, screes and dry-stone walls. It is a herbaceous perennial, semi-evergreen in mild climates, deciduous in harsh winters. It produces long creeping stolons that root on contact with the soil, allowing the clump to spread and regenerate. Its growth rarely exceeds 15 to 20cm in height, but the flowering stems straighten up and reach around 30cm. At maturity, each plant can cover 40 to 80cm in width. Growth is rapid, producing a good cushion within two to three years. The foliage consists of small, rounded to heart-shaped, 2 to 4 cm long, medium green, slightly toothed leaves. The star-shaped flowers fully open with five lobes, 2 to 2.5cm wide, are a luminous lavender-blue to mauve, paler at the centre. They follow one another without interruption from May-June until September, especially if the plant is lightly pruned after the first wave of flowers. It produces small capsules containing a large quantity of fine seeds, which can self-sow in soil crevices. The flowers are  visited by bees and other pollinators.

In the garden, the wall bellflower can be used to carpet partially shaded rock gardens, border edges, the top or foot of stone walls, banks, and gaps between paving slabs, as well as the edge of a pot or container. At the foot of deciduous trees, you can plant it in front of Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold' among Heuchera 'Silver Scrolls'. It pairs very well with the creeping bugle Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow' and Campanula poscharskyana 'E.H. Frost' in a cool rock garden.