Re: campanulas for shade
a quick note on a good slug bait. Sluggo is great, and it is a fertilizer
element, and is even used in chicken food so it won't harm your soil or
animals. I have chickens wandering all over my nursery and none have been
damages. Alternately, my daughters dog got into some deadline and was in
convulsions for an entire day, and luckily survived the incident. We have
been using it all season with great results.
----- Original Message -----
From: Alaina Sloo (Brava Services) <a-asloo@CORP.WEBTV.NET>
To: <shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 1999 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [SG] campanulas for shade
> I've been experimenting with campunula species a lot this year and I'm
also
> a great fan of campanula in the shade.
>
> I love the wacky C. takesima (Pamela's Dr Seuss plant) and it bloomed
> beautifully in full shade. Then the slugs/snails found it and decimated it
> within about 3 days (sigh. the price of gardening in northern california).
I
> haven't had a slug problem with any other campanula, but I'm not sure if
the
> plant is a gourmet slug treat or if I just planted it in a particularly
> slug-friendly spot. The other plants in that spot are ferns and oxalis, so
> anything probably looks good to a slug compared with them. ;-)
>
> I've also always had excellent luck with the groundcover C. poscharskyana
> (sp?).
>
> With just a few hours of morning sun, I had really good luck this year
with
> C. persicifolia 'George Chiswell'. It's a lovely flower, with medium-size,
> outward-facing cups that are white with a blue/purple rim. It's about
12-18"
> tall and very long-blooming.
>
> C. rotundifolia also bloomed like crazy with just dappled morning sun in
my
> garden.
>
> C. latiloba is the only one I had any trouble with in shade this year
(slugs
> aside). It's planted where it gets a few hours of dappled morning sun. It
> looks healthy, but it didn't bloom. It arrived looking the same size and
> from the same mail order nursery as 'George Chiswell' (I forget which one)
> and I planted them about 6 feet apart, so I can only conjecture that it
> wanted a little more sun than it got. If anybody has any advice with this
> plant, I'd love to hear it. It seems like it will be a lovely campanula.
>
> Alaina Sloo
> Northern California
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Claire Peplowski [E*@AOL.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 08, 1999 6:23 PM
> To: shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: [SG] campanulas for shade
>
>
> Hello Shade Robins:
>
> Since this list is very quiet, I assume you are all in malaise from the
hot
> summer and the (east coast) rainy humid hot September.
>
> I am there too so have been making notes on next year's garden. In a book
> by
> Robin Lane Fox there are good suggestions on using campanula in the shade.
>
> The first is c. alliariifola 'Ivory Bells'. He says "everybody knows
about
> the hosta, but nobody bothers with this equally obliging Campanula. This
> plant "will grow almost anywhere, even in dry shade".
>
> Next is c. latiloba. That one seems hard to locate. Also for dry shade
and
> under shrubs. A variety called 'Percy Piper' is a deep blue violet. This
> is
> described as robust.
>
> A third is c. burghaltii.
>
> Last is the c. punctata. Punctata is one of those plants with a warning.
I
> have one in the shady edge of the rock garden in poor soil. It doesn't do
> much running around.
>
> All of these plants seem to carry bell shaped pendant flowers and would
> offer
> something new to try in the shade. Seed may be the way for American
> gardeners to have these plants. Arrowhead Alpines carries two of them for
> spring shipment.
>
> Claire Peplowski
> East Nassau, NY
> z4
>
