Deep Blue Pearls

Campanula Deep Blue Pearl

"Time to swoop!"  Giggled a gardening friend who, like me, circles and waits for the screaming deals at the end of the planting season. She got wind of a fab sale and it took very little arm-twisting to race down the canyon, to Salt Lake City, and peruse the now marked down goodies.

I  pounced on a $3 table of Deep Blue Pearl Bellflowers. They, of course, are not the slightest bit blue. True Blue is a very hard color to come by in the gardening world. And, even if they look blue in the pot, chances are they will be perfectly purple by the end of year two.

It's called high alkaline, kind of weird, mountain soil. Blue does exceptionally well in that beautiful acid soil, so common in the east. Out here? Not so much.

But, who cares? I'm passionate for purple. The 'Deep Blue' name had me longing for another trip to the ocean. Plus! It gave me a pretty good excuse to spread my ever-growing sand dollar collection into the garden.

I'm truly, madly, deeply in love with any and all Bellflowers (Campanula). I'm also kinda nuts about the Oregon coast. There's lots of fun things to do at the ocean, but when I'm there I pretty much specialize in doing nothing at all. Other than comb the shore to collect sand dollars.

I have buckets and buckets of pretty little sand dollars just waiting for a sweet spot in the shade garden.


Deep Blue Pearls are dainty little perennials, hardy to -40 (F). They flower most of the summer, with deadheading. I planted these shade lovers under one of the few trees that seems to be flourishing in the backyard.

PS! The Campanula family of perennials is vast ~ and every one of them delightful to behold. Consider Canterbury Bells while you're at it. A show stopper in the garden, to say the very least.

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