Canterbury Bells

Campanula Champion Blue might be appearing in your supermarket flower shop right now. Pounce on a pot! This zone 5 biennial will bloom for months, when transplanted into your summer garden.

Ah, summer... those were the days. Before I had a mountain of snow clogging my driveway and life felt [almost] under control.

I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time standing in line at the local post office. I keep hoping they'll hire someone who actually cares enough to do his or her job.

This dilemma began with the folks who insist on sending important stuff like paychecks via snail mail. From there, we can implicate the overzealous snow plow guy. He's crushed 3 of my (rural) mailboxes in 4 short weeks.

Outside the sunny window:
The 7 foot tall arbor is nearly buried in snow.

Next up, the mailman. This rat promised faithfully to hold my mail at the post office and then immediately lost every single envelope with my name on it.

5 Stamps to Bermuda
So, there I was standing in line at the post office. Listening to them explain how they returned all my mail 'address unknown.' Apparently, without a mailbox, I don't exist. But, I have a mailbox, I declared. I bought a pretty one right inside your building, here, so you couldn't screw up anymore!"

And, that's when the customer at the next window asked how much it costs to mail a letter to Bermuda.

Why mail it? Let's just go!
Canterbury Bells look like little tea cups to me. This variety is a biennial, meaning she'll die in 2 years though she will happily reseed and grace your garden with bright purple flowers for many years to come.

* Campanula Champion Blue: There's nothin' blue about 'em. They are the truest purple flower I've ever grown. USDA zone 5, full sun, drought tolerant. Mature plants stand about 2 feet tall. Find a spot for Bellflowers in your garden.

Bellflowers

This time of year, I'll do pretty much anything to feed the gardening habit. That's why I took on a freelance project that involves charts and analysis of all things...

So, I'm wasting a good bit of time staring out the window and daydreaming about bells...

Not so much the bell curves of these charts and graphs I'm expected to create. More on the order of:

The 300+ members of the lovely Campanula Bellflower family.
If I could squeeze them all into my garden, I'd probably do so.

Like fine art, sometimes flowers are captivating and we don't immediately know why. It might be the soft colors or gentle lines.

Some gardeners say it's the perfection of the Campanula's bell-shaped flowers they find so pleasing.

Campanulas are reliable perennials requiring no special care, just a bright, sunny location and good drainage.

Most are lovely shades of blue and lavender though the white varieties tend to bloom for longer periods of time.

Bellflowers range from very large (4-5 feet,) to very dainty (6 inches, perfect for rock gardens.)

Three growing in my garden:

• Campanula carpatica 'Blue Clips' USDA zones 3-8, blooms: July-September
• Campanula rotundifolia 'Bluebell of Scotland' USDA zones 3-8, blooms: June-September
• Campanula persicifolia Moerheimii, 'Bellflower Moerheimii', USDA zones 4-9, blooms: all summer.
  

As I dilly dally the hours away on this most boring chart-building project, it occurs to me... there's no such thing as a bell curve to life. Ups and downs create the jagged edges that come from successes and failures all along our path. Though... wouldn't it be lovely if life ran that smoothly?