Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Codonopsis clematidea

 
Codonopsis clematidea
Asian bellflower
Common name Asian bellflower
Family campanulaceae
Life cycle perennial (Z4)
Flowers pale blue bells (summer)
Size 3'
Light part shade
From seed germinate at room temperature
detailed seed-starting info below

Unlike its climbing cousin C. lanceolata, this is a rambler that is somewhat self-supporting but likes to use neighboring plants or shrubs as a support. Not as robust as C. lanceolata either - it took me several tries to get seedlings established and strong enough to weather a summer and a winter. But it looks like my efforts have been worthwhile - charming nodding bellflowers over a backdrop of small leaves.

Codonopsis clematidea
Tiniest, fuzzy new growth on second-year plants, just emerging in late April
Asian bellflower
The inside coloration, usually hidden from view, is primarily there for insects' benefit

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Codonopsis clematidea


Visitors to this page have left the following comments


Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '02 trade. Baggy 35F (16%G, 4-10 wks)-70F (no further germination)
    Seed from T&M. Baggy 70F (40%G, 9-13d)
  2. Seed from '02 trade. Baggy 70F (80%G, 8-16d)
  3. Seed from '05 trade. Baggy 70F (47%G, 6-9d)
  4. Seed from NARGS '08/'09 exchange, cold-stored over summer. Baggy 70F (78%G, 5-11d)

Best treatment for these lots seems to be just germinate at room temperature. Note that Deno saw different germination behavior for commercial and wild-collected seed lots.


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments