Indoor Bell – flowers
‘Way back when homes were heated by fireplaces and coal- burning kitchen stoves, sunny windows bloomed during fall and winter months with showering cascades of star-shaped flowers, the somewhat tender cousins of garden biennial and perennial “bell-flowers.” Campanula isophylla is the botanical name – descriptively nicknamed Star of Bethlehem, Italian Bell Flower or Falling Stars. Nowadays, the Star of Bethlehem is staging a come-back, both in its original single star form and in more elaborately ruffled and petalled double forms. This is one of the most floriferous and soul satisfying plants I’ve ever grown.
The old-fashioned, white single blooming plant is a dainty trailer, charming in a hanging basket, with small green leaves on thin stems and white star-shaped, saucer flowers. The lavender-blue form has gray-green leaves felted with fine white down. Both forms bloom constantly from August through November. There is also an earlier single, a blue flowering variety with finer foliage, Campanula fragilis.
Modern double-flowering forms ( Campanula elatines complex ) begin blooming in July and don’t stop until the end of September. They come in white or blue, the same pure shades as the singles.
These plants are delightful in window and porch boxes and are easy to grow indoors if you have a cool location for them. Actually, they are tender perennials – garden plants – and can’t very well adapt to high temperatures during their blooming season, when nature meant them to be cool. Anything over 60° is likely to discourage bloom and weaken the plants. They’ll happily accept temperatures down to 40° and lower at night. The air they live in should be fresh and humid, never dry. Their soil mix should be on the rich, humusy side and their pots should never be allowed to dry out.
To flower profusely they want all the sun they can get. This means a southern exposure in fall and winter if possible.
Although too tender to be left outdoors the year around, except in mild climates, they are essentially garden plants and hence their life is a cycle of bloom, rest, re-growth and new bloom. You can follow the calendar in caring for them.
In early fall, when plants are in full bloom, pick off the dead flowers to discourage seed-setting, feed with mild solution of liquid fertilizer every two weeks.
During the early part of winter, after the final flower is gone, cut the plant back to its base. Courage! If you don’t perform this somewhat frightening operation, the plant will bloom next at the end of a long, straggly, very woody stem rather than making a compact, bushy mass of flowers. Console yourself by rooting the cuttings, making new plants for next year. The months of November and December, after flowering, are the plant’s resting period. Keep the soil more dry than usual, and keep the pot as cool as you can without freezing, but frame in the full sun. If you have a cold frame, this will be fine.
In January and February, as new shoots reach 3-5 inches long, you can take more cuttings. Root and pot them for Christmas giving. Usually I put them in a pot of moist vermiculite ( sand, or any other rooting medium will do ) and slip a plastic bag over the top. This keeps them protected until they’re rooted and ready to pot. Meanwhile keep the parent growing in sun and cool – but start again to keep the soil moist.
By March or April you may have more cuttings than you can take care of. Start now to grow the old plant into a glorious specimen. Repot it with fresh soil. Pinch out the tips of the new shoots so the stems will branch into as many flower bearing stemlets as possible.
You should continue pinching out the tips of shoots until mid-June. From then on, flower buds will be setting and soon appearing. By July you can start fertilizing to promote better growth and more bloom.
Now to answer a constant complaint. Why whet a plant-lover’s appetite for plants she can’t find, buy and enjoy? If these star-flowers are not available in your local greenhouses, may houseplant mail order nurseries the old favourite bloomers and the double flowering varieties too.
For more information about Vintage Crochet and Vintage Knitting Patterns - Visit these sites.
The old-fashioned, white single blooming plant is a dainty trailer, charming in a hanging basket, with small green leaves on thin stems and white star-shaped, saucer flowers. The lavender-blue form has gray-green leaves felted with fine white down. Both forms bloom constantly from August through November. There is also an earlier single, a blue flowering variety with finer foliage, Campanula fragilis.
Modern double-flowering forms ( Campanula elatines complex ) begin blooming in July and don’t stop until the end of September. They come in white or blue, the same pure shades as the singles.
These plants are delightful in window and porch boxes and are easy to grow indoors if you have a cool location for them. Actually, they are tender perennials – garden plants – and can’t very well adapt to high temperatures during their blooming season, when nature meant them to be cool. Anything over 60° is likely to discourage bloom and weaken the plants. They’ll happily accept temperatures down to 40° and lower at night. The air they live in should be fresh and humid, never dry. Their soil mix should be on the rich, humusy side and their pots should never be allowed to dry out.
To flower profusely they want all the sun they can get. This means a southern exposure in fall and winter if possible.
Although too tender to be left outdoors the year around, except in mild climates, they are essentially garden plants and hence their life is a cycle of bloom, rest, re-growth and new bloom. You can follow the calendar in caring for them.
In early fall, when plants are in full bloom, pick off the dead flowers to discourage seed-setting, feed with mild solution of liquid fertilizer every two weeks.
During the early part of winter, after the final flower is gone, cut the plant back to its base. Courage! If you don’t perform this somewhat frightening operation, the plant will bloom next at the end of a long, straggly, very woody stem rather than making a compact, bushy mass of flowers. Console yourself by rooting the cuttings, making new plants for next year. The months of November and December, after flowering, are the plant’s resting period. Keep the soil more dry than usual, and keep the pot as cool as you can without freezing, but frame in the full sun. If you have a cold frame, this will be fine.
In January and February, as new shoots reach 3-5 inches long, you can take more cuttings. Root and pot them for Christmas giving. Usually I put them in a pot of moist vermiculite ( sand, or any other rooting medium will do ) and slip a plastic bag over the top. This keeps them protected until they’re rooted and ready to pot. Meanwhile keep the parent growing in sun and cool – but start again to keep the soil moist.
By March or April you may have more cuttings than you can take care of. Start now to grow the old plant into a glorious specimen. Repot it with fresh soil. Pinch out the tips of the new shoots so the stems will branch into as many flower bearing stemlets as possible.
You should continue pinching out the tips of shoots until mid-June. From then on, flower buds will be setting and soon appearing. By July you can start fertilizing to promote better growth and more bloom.
Now to answer a constant complaint. Why whet a plant-lover’s appetite for plants she can’t find, buy and enjoy? If these star-flowers are not available in your local greenhouses, may houseplant mail order nurseries the old favourite bloomers and the double flowering varieties too.
For more information about Vintage Crochet and Vintage Knitting Patterns - Visit these sites.
