Flowers of Platycodon (balloon flower)

Rainy Day Blues 1: Platycodon

Posted on by Ann Mackay

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This week’s garden photography has meant nipping out between showers. If you’ve been reading my blog for a little while, you’ll know that the climate here in the east of England tends to be very dry – actually the driest in the country. It doesn’t feel like it at the moment though! There has been plenty of rain and there’s a mad rush of growth in the garden as a result.

One plant that would probably prefer a bit more sunshine is this Platycodon grandiflorus, commonly known as ‘balloon flower’. (So named because the developing flower buds swell into odd little five-pointed ‘balloons’…a temptation for any child to pop them!)

Platycodon is a member of the campanula family and looks very similar to the campanulas growing close to it. Its flowers are bigger, at about three inches across, whereas the campanula flowers reach about two inches. It creates a lovely splash of blue which blends easily with the other colours in the border, especially the nearby yellow daisies of Anthemis tinctoria and a white campanula that grows next to it.

Blue is one of my favourite colours, so it was inevitable that I would buy a platycodon as soon as I saw it. It has settled in well since I planted it last year and there are now lots of flower buds on it. These should keep the blue flowers coming through summer. It is wet and grey here at the moment, but rainy day blues like these make me very happy.

Flowers of Platycodon (balloon flower)
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Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

12 thoughts on “Rainy Day Blues 1: Platycodon”

  1. What a beauty. I have seen these in other gardens, but never thought of growing one. What conditions do they like? Though if part of the Campanula family it’s probably prone to S&S damage. Even my asters have been eaten to the ground this year!

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    1. It took me a long time to discover these and now I’m delighted to have in in my garden. It likes the ‘moist, well-drained soil’ that everything seems to demand but isn’t necessarily what’s on offer. I’d describe where this one is growing as well-drained and I’d water it if the weather was very dry, but haven’t needed to do that for a while. We haven’t been too bad for S&S this year…yet!

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  2. What a pretty flower. Is that white, star-shaped thing in the center of one the pistil? Or is that the actual flower, and the blue ‘petals’ are bracts? In any event, given your love of blue, I can see why you’d love this one!

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    1. Yes, the white thing is indeed the stigma, although the five lobes do give it a very flower-like shape. (Platycodons have their flower parts – petals, stamens and stigma lobes all in sets of five.) And oh, yes, I really love this blue! 🙂

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    1. Hi Linda! It hasn’t gone into spam but I do have an anonymous comment…might be from you. (I often get an anonymous comment from DigitalLadySyd. For some reason WP keeps messing her around when she comments – hope it’s not starting to do that to you too!)

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      1. I was asking about the white star-shaped ‘pretty’ in the middle of the flower: whether it was the pistil or the actual flower, with the purple ‘petals’ being bracts.

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      2. Ah, yes…so the anonymous comment was from you and WP is playing tricks again. I wonder why it does that? At least you are yourself again now! 🙂 (And I guess you’ll already have seen my reply that, yes, the white part was the stigma.)

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