When spring arrives each year, I usually discover I’ve lost some perennials to the harsh winter. Sometimes I just divide one of my daylilies to fill the spot, or I’m other times I’m tempted to try a new plant (usually a hybrid that will also eventually croak during a nasty winter).
But I also have a list of reliable perennials I buy as replacement plants every year because they are pest and disease-resistant, and they can handle just about anything mother nature throws at them. Balloon flower ‘Single Blue’ is always on that list. To sweeten the deal, we have a nursery in the area that sells the plants for $4.50 each–a steal compared to the cost of most perennials these days!
Back in 2008 I sang the praises of balloon flowers when I added ‘Single Blue’ to the Garden Winners list. I have this cultivar growing all over my yard, and other than deadheading the plants, they need no care from me to thrive. Here’s what I wrote in 2008:
The longest-blooming perennials in my garden this past season were the Balloon Flowers (Platycodon grandiflorus). Some of them even flowered into November. I grow several different varieties, but my favorite one is simply called ‘Single Blue.’ It has beautiful blue-purple blossoms and grows about two feet tall.
Balloon Flowers have taproots that look like big white carrots. They are reputedly difficult to transplant or divide, but I move mine all the time (I’ll move anything, I’ve even successfully moved roses and butterfly bushes. You just have to be careful to take as much soil around the plant’s roots as possible).
Balloon Flowers are one of the last perennials to peek up in the spring, so it’s good to mark them carefully so you don’t step on or dig up the tender shoots. They do well in full sun or partial shade. They can get floppy, but if you cut them back in late May, they will grow shorter on sturdier stems.
If you deadhead them regularly, Balloon Flowers will bloom all summer and into fall. Unlike other perennials whose foliage stays green until a frost or freeze kills it, Balloon Flower foliage perks up the waning fall garden by turning a gorgeous shade of golden-yellow.
Balloon flowers also come in pink or white, but the blues and purples are my favorite.