Recipes with Julie Van Rosendaal: Cooking up a solution to creeping bellflower | CBC News (2024)

FAQs

How do you get rid of purple bell flowers? ›

However, it is edible, so escaped individuals can be permanently disposed of. The leaves and young shoots are high in vitamin C and mild in flavor, and the roots are edible raw or cooked.

Creeping bellflower has both a thick, fleshy root that's an inch or even several inches deep in the soil, and it also has a lot of thread-like little roots that grow horizontally just below the soil.

Bellflower is used in teas to treat colds and coughs.

If you're prepared to kill your grass as well, RoundUp will kill the bellflower. This chemical spray will go right down into the roots from the top of the plant. However, it will take multiple reapplications to fully kill the roots.

Smothering Methods

Another method for removing creeping bellflower is to cover the plants to deprive them of light. However, this is only practical if the flowers are growing in small patches. To do so, you can use newspapers, cardboard, or plastic, which is then covered over with soil or heavy mulch.

Creeping bellflower is a common edible weed in yards and gardens. It spreads quickly, but thankfully, it's edible and tastes good.

Creeping bellflower roots spread rapidly and become entangled with roots of other perennials. Even dropped leaves can set root and sprout. In a few years, Creeping Bellflower can take over a garden or lawn and choke out other plants.

Benefits to the landscape

Native bellflower species, such as American bellflower (Campanula americana), can be grown to replace pollen sources for bellflower-specific pollinator species. Creeping bellflower has also been used as an edible plant by many well-known foragers, such as the Forager Chef.

It looks like Ground Ivy (creeping charlie) except it does not have a square stem and does not have the mint odor. Also, it is spreading by underground rootstalks and not above ground runners. It is Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides).

What flower looks like a bell? ›

Some examples of plants with bell-shaped flowers include bluebells (Hyacinthoides), foxgloves (Digitalis), fuchsia (Fuchsia), campanula (Campanula), and lily of the valley (Convallaria). Bell-shaped flowers are popular in gardens and floral arrangements due to their elegant and distinctive appearance.

The whole plant is edible particularly at this time of the year (spring). I frequently eat the young leaves, although I've heard great reports on the tasty thick rhizome it produces. How to identify creeping bell flower: Look for triangular-shaped hairy leaves emerging from the ground.

And what's so special about gardenia? Well known and well liked, lavender's purple bracts and woody stalks grace many summer gardens, filling them with its recognisable aroma. But did you know that an indoor lavender plant is scientifically proven to be one of the best plants that help you sleep?

Jasmine can be used to make perfume as it has a strong fragrance.

Passion flower (Passiflora incarnata) is a climbing vine with white and purple flowers. The chemicals in passion flower have calming effects. Passion flower is native to the southeastern United States and Central and South America. It's been traditionally used to help with sleep.

Creeping Bellflower, a European import popular in the garden industry, readily escapes cultivation and can quickly become invasive, spreading both from seed (up to 15,000 per plant!) as well as its root system.

It has a rhizomatous root system that sends out lateral roots where more plants can develop. It also has a taproot that can go over 12 inches deep. New plants can sprout from root fragments. It's the root system that makes this plant very difficult to control.

Remove by Hand

A common strategy for purple dead nettle control in lawns is to pull the weeds up by the roots and dispose of them. This option works well if you only have a few of the weeds on your lawn. Be sure to remove all pieces of the plant, as they can regerminate if given the chance.

Creeping bellflower blooms look similar to the native harebell or bluebell bellflower (Campanula rotundifolia). But, unlike the native species, the 5-petaled, violet-blue bell-shaped flowers alternate up one side of its sturdy 3-4′ stem, and it produces new plants from its roots as it creeps along underground.