Bells In Garden Design

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Bell for flower beds, rock gardens, rockeries and borders

The bell got its romantic name due to the shape of a flower that resembles a small bell. These beautiful plants can be grown in both biennial and perennial crops. They differ in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, graceful flowers and their bright colors.

Bells are very decorative, it can be said without exaggeration that not a single garden plot can do without them. These plants, in the process of their development, form bushes with straight and strong peduncles, bearing flowers at the very top. Bells bloom for quite a long time - until all the buds bloom to the last.

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Blue bells

Bells are used in absolutely any mixed planting, because with their gentle and romantic appearance, they bring a piece of touching simplicity to any composition.

Tall varieties of bells are often planted in the very center of a flower bed or flower bed. Others, for example, Carpathian bells look very impressive and grow well under the crown of trees.

Low-growing bells are most often used for group plantings, they are great as the main "building unit" of the border. The Carpathian bell, as well as the low forms of the crowded bell, are excellent for creating rose gardens. It is pleasant to look at these beautiful plants placed on rocky hills. Any grower is quite capable of picking up such types of bells so that they delight the eyes of the garden owner with their flowering from June to September.

Bell agrotechnics

Carpathian bell on an alpine slide

The big plus of bells is that they are absolutely undemanding to the soil, although, of course, they feel better in well-cultivated, loose, fertile and moderately moist areas.

Absolutely all bells prefer light partial shade, but in the sun, with even a slight lack of moisture, they are weaker and bloom less.

Remember that it is preferable to use low-growing types of bells in the compositions, since tall ones after flowering lose their decorative effect, and they must be completely cut out. As for watering, it is, of course, necessary, especially in dry weather, when the soil is saturated with moisture at least three times a week, and only in the evening. To avoid breakage from strong gusts of wind, it is still better to tie tall bell plants to pegs.

Bell carpathian white

We also need feeding, which is carried out throughout the summer. The purpose of feeding can be different, for example, for better tillering, plants can be fed with organic fertilizers, nitrophosphate.

The next feeding is best done during the flowering period of the very first bells with potassium sulfate. The third top dressing is best done immediately after flowering with potassium sulfate or superphosphate.

Wood ash also helps plants, which should be scattered around the plant as much as possible: it is not only rich in trace elements, which is well known to everyone, but also reduces the acidity of the soil, and bells do not grow on acidic soils.

Crowded blue bell

Absolutely all bells are propagated by sowing seeds, which can be carried out in autumn and spring, sowing seeds both in the ground and in boxes (in order to obtain seedlings, in March). The seeds of the bells are very small, so they do not need to be covered with soil.

Seedlings grow very slowly and require picking. When planting in a permanent place, it must be borne in mind that the plants are bushy, therefore the optimal distance between them should be at least 40-45 centimeters. Bells usually bloom in the second year.

For reproduction of bells, another method is less often used - dividing the bush. This applies only to large plants, which are divided into the fifth or sixth year of their life, usually in early May or August, and are planted immediately after division.

Plants can often be obtained from self-sowing; it is abundant in bells. In order to somewhat extend the flowering period and enhance the decorative effect, faded flowers must be removed in a timely manner.

Of the positive qualities, one can note the high winter hardiness of bells, which allows them to do without even shelter for the winter, but still it is better not to risk it and cover the plants with peat or compost.

Bellflower pests and diseases

Bell carpathian blue

There are not so many of them - root rot, root collar, rust and powdery mildew of leaves. Often they harm the bells of aphids, slobbering pennits, slugs. Measures to combat root rot are to treat the bells, both before flowering and after, with copper sulfate, diluting 100 g of the drug in a bucket of water.

The preparation "Topaz" helps against rust and powdery mildew - 4 ml per bucket of water at a consumption of about a liter per 10 square meters.

The drug "Iskra" helps against pests, one tablet of which is diluted in a bucket of water and sprayed with a liter of the resulting solution per square meter of the flower bed. Metaldehyde will help protect against slugs, thirty grams of which will allow you to process 10 square meters of area. Treatments are usually carried out in late May - early June.

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Types and varieties of bells:

Bell peach

Carpathian white bell is an elegant and beautiful flower. The plant reaches a height of 40-50 cm and requires small supports. The flowers are interesting funnel-bell-shaped, snow-white, reaching 5.5 centimeters in diameter. The plant is very light-loving, rather winter hardy.

It can grow in one place for a very long time. Propagated by seeds or by dividing the bush. Ideal for rocky slides, curbs, this flower is also great in cut. Blooms for a very long time - from June to August.

The bell is crowded blue - this plant reaches a height of 60 centimeters and requires support during the flowering period, because it can be broken by a gust of wind. This bell is the finest decoration in rockeries. Its flowers are blue-violet, reach a diameter of 2 centimeters, and form stunning capitate inflorescences. In one place the plant can grow up to 7 years. Blooms from June to late July.

Carpathian blue bell - the plant reaches a height of 25 centimeters and absolutely does not require support. During growth, it forms a bush, reaching a diameter of 40 centimeters. The flowers are medium in size (up to 3 centimeters in diameter), blue, cupped. In one place, this bell can grow up to seven years. Blooms from early June to late August.

Gargan bell

The peach-leaved bell, the Snow White variety, is a plant that reaches a height of about 80 centimeters. It blooms with large, snow-white bell-shaped flowers, collected in apical inflorescences. The favorite places of this bell are sunny and inaccessible to the wind areas.

Prefers fertile soils. This bell, due to its gorgeous flowers, is perfect for cutting; flowers, collected in a bouquet and placed in water, can stand up to two weeks without deterioration. This bell is propagated by seeds, which are sown in late March or early April. It is better to sow them in boxes, without covering them with earth after that.

The gargan blue bell is very interesting, low (up to 15 centimeters high) plants. They have charming blue flowers with petals that resemble stars. In one place, this type of bell can grow up to six years. Most often it is used to create rocky slides. True, this bell is not winter-hardy enough, so for the winter it needs to be mulched with peat or sawdust. Blooms throughout July.