Never any luck for me either.

Nor me. Floppy, meh.

Gardener's World had an episode I was watching - Season 50 Episode 5 - they had a guest on who collects them. I sometimes think I could be perfectly happy living in an area with sandy, gritty, well draining soil. Not just for campanulas, but for other plants too. I'd really love a forested garden in the spring and a gravelly, well drained sandy soil during the summer. I suppose it's just a case of the grass is always greener. [g]

I only tried the blue clips and white clips. They were in my garden for three years and stayed very small. I ended up shovel pruning them. I have clay soil.

The creeping middle European ones (with unpronounceable species names) do very well here. In fact, they grow rather more rampantly than is necessary :-)

Campanula is an entire genus, so there may be variation in their needs and our success. I have the feeling that the low growing rock garden ones may like soil that is closer to neutral than my quite acidic garden provides since I have tried a wide range of those over 30 years and two gardens, and none did very well. If you are interested I will list all the ones who lasted less than2 or 3 seasons, likely covering at least 5 species and hybrids.

I did not try any of the ones like cherry bells since I don’t like garden thugs and they developed a bad reputation fairly soon after introduction.

C. persicaria aka peach leafed bellflower does well here without being thuggish, but I didn’t bring any from my former garden into this one.

Babs, you may have misread my post :-) The ones that do well here and don't seem to be overly aggressive seeders or spreaders ARE the rock garden types - C portenschlagiana, C. poscharskyana and C. carpatica. And C. garganica 'Dickson's Gold', which I really like. Same with Birch's Hybrid. All the rest seem to be far more weedy than gardenworthy IMO.

I tried blue clips/white clips. My soil is close to neutral and is loamy clay. I put them in half sun. They didn't last more than a year or two and the bloom was very brief.

I usually stay away from thugs as well. I think I have a campanula like tall variety that is a weed here that I can't get rid of. It was here when I came and I pull it out wherever I see it and never let it bloom.

It is the creepers that I'd like to use. I love the way they look in a crevice, but, again, my soil is loamy clay everywhere and while I have a few rock edges that I've installed, the soil around the rocks is still loamy clay.

I was considering whether they would be worth potting up, but do they have a short bloom period?

GG48, I did misread your post and so removed the reference to you with regard to overly aggressive C. punctata.

I have tried all the ones you listed as species and named varieties plus C. cochleariifolia, all in more than one site, and often in more than one setting within each site, including ordinary garden soil, sandy soil, and in rock walls. None lasted any length of time. I really like Campanula and have since I saw one on a Michigan roadside as a teenager, but they aren’t happy in my gardens.

I've got a handful of types of campanula; these are all new to me, having just gotten in to the genus:

* C. carpatica "Blue Clips": Nice enough but really low so can't see much of the flowers. Still worth having around, though, since it seems to be staying pretty tidy. If peters out, probably won't replace -- other shorter plants I prefer.

* C. glomerata "Genti Blue": Gorgeous rich blue blooms, very floriferous - simply fabulous while in bloom! Screwed up and planted in the rear of the border because I thought they would be taller, but they only got around 12-15" or so, so will be re-locating them to front of the border in the fall in a spot where I will be sure to see them out the window.

* C. persicifolia (aka peachleaf bellflower), no-name: Meh. Didn't really impress me but I probably need to give it more time, I just planted them in the spring. Couldn't really see the flowers very well and foliage is nothing to write home about.

* C. lactiflora "Pritchard's Variety": Wanted it for the tall billows of blooms. Got a few blooms but too young/small to be billowy. Flowers are kind of washed out, but here again I need to give it more time, will hopefully be impressive when mature.

* "Kent Belle": Love it! Rich nodding blooms, lush healthy foliage on medium height plant, bonus points for second smaller flush of bloom post deadheading. Looking forward to plant being large enough to take divisions.

I have pretty good soil as a whole, very well-draining but not sandy. All of the above are in full to part sun and are growing well. Can't comment on how they would do in clay -- that is a problem I'm very fortunately not battling here.

Babs, you've tried them more than I have. That's too bad, but I guess there's plenty of fish in the sea. :-).

Mxk3 - Well, maybe that is the ticket, is not having heavy soil. You are VERY fortunate to have well draining soil. 'Kent Belle' sounds nice, and the glomerata too. Glad to hear they are doing well for someone! I may try a couple and maybe just in containers to avoid my clay soil.

Thanks!

Be careful with C. glomerata. It's a weed here. Controllable, but still shows up in more places than I would like.

A lot of campanula are described as short lived. So getting three years out of them sounds reasonable.

I am surprised most Campanulas are short-lived. My experience is only with peach-leafed, Campanula persificolia, and they are fantastic. I have a white one, 'Alba'. It blooms in crap soil without fail, is healthy in its fourth year, and the blooms last well. Twice I've tried C rotundifolia, the native general species, and I can't get those to live when grown from seed. Will try again next year. I didn't realize they were so picky about soil. Wish I could help you with the ground covers, PM, but I have no experience Thanks to all for their input.

Thank you, I definitely am not looking for another weed to get rid of. [g]

My favorite campanula has to be 'Samantha'. It's a blooming machine with gorgeous upward facing blue flowers that started in early June this year and it is still blooming today. After three seasons in my garden it makes a clump of about 15 inches around, maybe 4 inches tall. Beautiful and well behaved, I don't know why it isn't more widely available.

Thanks, it's nice to hear someone is having success and enjoying these plants. I wonder what zone you live in and what kind of soil and sun exposure the plant is growing in?

I'm zone 5b in Southern Ontario. My soil is clay for the most part but the previous owner must have worked some magic around the perimeter of the home because the soil is pretty decent where I'm growing 'Samantha' and I have it in full sun.