'Resholt Variety'
Dalmation Bellflower; aka:
Creeping Bellflower
or Wall Harebell
"Summer met me! Harebells rang,
Honeysuckle clustered near,
As the royal pageant sang
Songs enchanting to the ear."
-Fay Inchfawn,
b.1881
b.1881
Campanula portenschlagiana 'Resholt Variety' Dalmation bellflower or wall harebell is an evergreen or semi-evergreen perennial which grows six to ten inches tall, with a one-foot spread its first year, eventually with continuous spread along runners.Several mounding clumps properly spaced can make a continuous groundcover of small heart-shaped dentate leaves. It may out-compete other groundcovers, & its potential for rampancy should be considered when deciding placement.
It is not nearly as rampant as the Serbian bellflower C. poscharskyana but all things being relative, its companion plants should nevertheless be tall enough to not be overwhelmed by this creeper. Dalmation bellflowers & Serbian bellflowers are equally useful for path edging, rock walls, rockgardens, or containers.
'Resholt Variety' is often described in sales catalogs as "the best blue" of any Dalmation campanula cultivar, but sometimes it starts out the season closer to violet-blue & becomes more deeply true-blue after a couple of weeks. The first & second photos show first their mid-may color as the very first buds open violet-blue, followed by their color at May's end when the depth of blue justifies the assertion that no Dalmation cultivar is any bluer.
At their height these flowers entirely cover the foliage bright with cup-shaped starry flowers, which have the grand habit of always facing upward.
Blooms begin appearing in late May or early June, are gung-ho all summer, & rebloom less intensely through the whole of autumn in our mild zone, right up to November. If it seems to be petering out at any time during summer, a light sheering will get it flowering again.
It wants full sun but tolerates partial shade. It wants moist well draining soil. Clumps can be divided in autumn or just before spring. An alpine species native to northern Balkans, it's cold-hardy to Zone 4, or 3 with protection. It is not as heat-hardy; our Zone 8 is as warm as it can enjoy.
C. garganica 'Dickson's Gold' Adriatic Bellflower