How to Grow Campanula (Canterbury Bells) for Stunning Spring Blooms

You know those flowers that always get a reaction? You give them to someone and you get a text saying, what were those? Or I post a picture on social media and lots of questions. What were those flowers? For me, Canterbury Bells. These beautiful flowers that don't look like anything else and you didn't know you could grow them in the desert. I'm Angela from Growing in the Garden. My garden's in Mesa, Arizona. I want to help you succeed even if you're gardening in tough conditions. Campanula or Campanula, depending on how you say it, is one of my favorite flowers. I've grown it for a couple of years. I grow it as a tall cut flower. I've also grown dwarf varieties in containers. It's surprisingly simple to grow. The pollinators love it and the blooms last forever in the vase. If you live in a cooler climate, you might know Campanula as a perennial, but the varieties that I grow are hybrids. They are bred to bloom their first year and grow well here in the low desert, but it's important to treat them as a cool season hardy annual. That means you're starting them indoors during the summer, planting them outside in the fall, and then we get these beautiful blooms all the way until it gets hot. The key is planting them at the right time so they have plenty of cool weather to develop long straight stems before they bloom. Canterbury Bells can be tricky to start from seed. The seeds are tiny and they take a while to germinate. To help with this, I use pelleted seeds. Pelleted seeds are a lot easier to work with. They need light to sprout, so gently place them on the top of the soil and press them into the soil. I like to top with vermiculite because that lets the light through and holds the moisture in. They're particular about temperature. When you take them indoors, it needs to be between 65 and 68 degrees. And be patient. The seeds can take two or three weeks to germinate. My favorite variety is the Champion Series. They're fast growing and produce lots of stems. Once the seedlings are three to five inches tall, it's time to plant them outside. If this sounds like a lot of work, you can also order plugs from online retailers. Order them and have them shipped to you in the fall when it's time to plant outside. Because it's a cool season hardy annual, in most places you're going to plant them outside in the fall. Here in the low desert, I start seeds indoors during August and September and then plant them outside during October and November. These plants like cool weather. Look for an area that gets lots of sunlight with rich well-draining soil. They need to get planted when the days are short and cool, so the foliage has time to grow and develop. They'll bloom as the days get longer, but still stay cool. That's why fall planting is crucial here. For the best chance of success, you want nighttime temperatures to be below 70 degrees and daytime temperatures no higher than 80. If you're growing for a single stem, space plants four to six inches apart. If you want a more branching plant, give them about nine inches per plant. I don't usually pinch young plants, but instead I make that first cut deep on that central stem, just above some of those other branches. That encourages those side branches to grow up nice and tall. The flowers are very top heavy, so they definitely need some support. Here in my raised beds, I have two layers of trellis netting to help hold them upright. If the plants tip over, like this one that fell out of the netting, the stems will grow up towards the sky. That's called heliotropism. The flowers will grow to the light and you can't bend them back. In the spring, as it begins to warm up and you see new growth, that's the perfect time to apply a flower fertilizer. This will help increase the number of stems. The best time to harvest is when the first couple of flowers open. That will give you the longest vase life, but if there's more blooming, that's okay. I never tend to catch mine in time and they still last quite a while in the vase. After harvesting, strip off the bottom lower leaves and put them in cool water. When you're ready to arrange them, use flower food. That really helps them extend their vase life. These flowers will last a week or two in the vase. Remember, these are cool season hardy annuals. They love the cooler temperatures of spring. As temperatures heat up, they don't like it and the blooms will start to fade. Now that it's heating up, I'm going to go ahead and harvest all of these. Okay, should I try and hold them? Not bad. If you'd like to grow something beautiful and a little unexpected, try Canterbury Bells. With the right timing, they'll reward you with tall, beautiful stems that everyone will want to know more about. Okay, Campanula. That's how I'm going to say it. Campanula. Campanula. Campanula. This flower can be tricky. This flower can be tricky to say. How about that? Hey guys, chill a little bit. Go lay your eggs. There, I think they're going to lay eggs. Good job. Thank you.