Yet another one

Balloon Flower - Sentimental Blue 2nd year

That is gorgeous!

I garden in containers and am never sure how big (wide/spread) plants will be, and never sure how many plants I can get in one container. So.....is the blooming plant just one plant, or more??

PV

Beautiful blue color!

PV,
Actually I planted those via hunk-of-seedling method. Not sure how many seedlings were in the hunk. My kids love these plants. Especially when the balloons are ready to be popped. I also have the tall variety as well in blue and white. This year I am ws the pink variety.
Michelle

Bet you have lots of "volunteers" in your garden, if your kids like to pop the balloons!

Artic,

Have you ever seen the "double blue"?
I have pictures of it here:

http://www.jakesplace.biz/kimskreations/TEMPLATES/KimsKountryTemplate.htm

I only planted it last year but hope to get LOTS of seeds this year!

Kim

Kim,
The double is gorgeous! Ok now I have to add this to my very long list.

Michelle

I wonder if I planted Balloon Flower seeds? Is it a kind of Campanula?

Kim-- Fabulous pics of Blue Flowers on your website!

T,
Balloon Flower is Platycodon. I'm not sure if it is related to Campanula.

Michelle

went and looked it up - balloon flower and campanula are related, same family.

PV

I have the dwarf blue, blue, double blue, pink and white of these. I love them. They are so easy to care for and come back nicely every year. You would think they were fragile by the looks of them but they are hardy enough to return every year in Maine they will make it anywhere *lol*.

I will hopefully have lots of seeds to offer for trade this fall as I'm wintersowing for the first time and learned not to deadhead things like I have always done. This year I'm going to harvest as much seeds as I can as I find I enjoy seed trading ALOT since it's so inexpensive.
I have high hopes for wintersowing as I have never been able to grow anything from seed.

I thank you all for the compliments on my site. It's really just a photo album so that when I feel depressed during the winter I can pull it up and remember all the beauty that embraces my land far beneath the snow.

Kim

I meant to also tell you that I am winter sowing seeds of Platycodon Axminster. I can't wait to see this one.

Here is a picture of it:

http://www.robsplants.com/plants/PlatyGrand.php


ENJOY!
Kim

Thanks, I guess I am not growing Platycodons but have a number of different Campanulas seeds WSed.

Will be sure to try Platycoldons next year, or perhaps get some seeds going yet this spring. They are so pretty!

I love my Platycoldons! I think they are so neat. They also reflower if you dead head them. The only problem being - no seed.

Kim love your gardens and all your blues,I see I need to get busy and buy more...I hope you keep us updated this summer as your flowers bloom... :o)))

Loretta...

Loretta,

I thank you so much for your compliments regarding my gardens. I have had a very hard time gardening until last year when I discovered that my neighbor would allow me to have all the horse manure I wanted. Day after day, wheelbarrel after wheelbarrel I tried improving my acidic sand pile *lol*. We literally don't have a single worm here. I remember when I received a trade one time, there was a worm in it. I flung that plant to the ground and ran so fast. I have never seen a worm here so it scared me *lol*.

I just got some more neat blue seeds to add to my collection. Do you like blue in the garden also? I LOVE blue in the garden!

Sincerely,
Kim

I love the blues in the gardens,I like putting them around my salvias..What new seeds did you get?No worms Kim? I have a bin now to get all my castings from..What kind of fertilizer do you use or is it just the manure,making you all those thriving beauties?Whatever your doing keep up the good work.!! :o)))

Loretta

I use Miracle Grow every now and then but mostly I think it was the addition of the manure. I plan to do it again this year.

Some of these seeds I'm sure are common but I don't have much for blue seeds:

Jasione 'Blue Light'
Blue Borage
Blue Barlow Columbine
Texas Blue Bonnets
Baby Blue Eyes
Blue Nigella
I think there's a few more but I can't remember them off the top of my head *lol*

There are so many others I want to get also though but I have to do it a little at a time.

I have a long list of "wants" and eventually I hope to have them all *lol* First I have to see how the winter sowing project went before I continue to buy seeds I can't grow. I have never been able to start seeds for some reason.

Kim

HI Kim - have you gotten some worms now that you are composting horse manure? Is it just too cold up there? I find that worms come from all over when you add horse hockey to the soil. If nobody's mentioned it yet - just be careful that you are composting it well first - horses only have one stomach and they pass a lot of weed seeds right on through to the manure, where horrible barnyard and pasture weeds will germinate and grow in your garden soil. I made that mistake one year - OMG, what a mess for the following 2 summers while I tried to figure out early in the season if it was a flower or a weed and then beat them with sticks and hoes to get them out afterwards. I finally found a successful method by accident. If you take a plastic burlap bag and fill it with your manure, you can lay it on the frozen garden soil kind of like a poultice or a big tea bag. The rain and snow will wash nutrients out of the bag leaving the weed seeds and solids inside. Sort of like manure tea in place, LOL!

Kim,
I love Jasione. Very easy from seed. Should also try Cupid's Dart another blue and very easy from seed. I have tons of blue in my gardens. In my humble opinion there can never be too much blue!

Michelle

This message was edited Mar 7, 2006 6:43 AM

blue and white, Michelle

The horses that I get manure from actually don't eat too many weed. They are mostly grain fed horses. I honestly didn't let it break down first. I didn try to get the stuff that had been in her pile for a little bit but wasn't concerned about it breaking down. It was all composted with sawdust. You know, there wasn't a single worm in that either. Lots of japanese beetle grubs further into the season but no worms. Those grubs had a sad ending on the back of my spade!

Hopefully I will have some blue iris that bloom this year. I planted them last fall but not sure if they are big enough to bloom this year or not.

I have always admired blue in the garden. I'm not much of a red/yellow girl....too flashy for me. Alot of people love the reds and yellows though and it does make a striking display but I have always been attracted to blue flowers for some reason.

Kim

Kim... I thought I was thru buying then I just had to order a few more after I saw your gardens,I've looked at your site AGAIN and it really makes me smile...

Loretta..

articfire I had to grin when I saw your soil. My son went to P.E.I. for the Scouts Jamboree a few years ago and he said he couldn't get over how different the soil was there (and how it coloured his clothes ;).

Lovely pic and plant. :)

Lily,
Our PEI soil is definitely a little on the "RED" side. lol. With my 4 children, 3 of which are boys, I help keep Tide in business.

Michelle