PLATYCODON (Platyco'don)

DESCRIPTION: This perennial is a native to China, eastern Siberia and Japan. This plant, known as Balloon flower, grows from 18 to 24 inches high. Its leaves are elliptic to lance-shaped, blue-green and neatly toothed. The foliage opens pretty late in the spring. In the summer, large, bell-shaped flowers open from balloon-shaped buds. They are gray-blue or blue-violet. This plant is great for herbaceous borders.

POTTING: Grow the Balloon flower in moist, fertile soil that has good drainage, in sun or light shade.

PROPAGATION: Seeds may be sown in flats of sifted, sandy soil and placed in a slightly heated greenhouse or cold frame, in the fall. Keep the seeds moist and shaded. When the seedlings are an inch or so high, they are transplanted separately to 3-inch pots filled with sandy, loamy soil and are grown in a cold frame. Once they've filled these pots with roots, they are planted outdoors where they are to grow permanently. These plants can be divided in the spring or basal cuttings of non-flowering shoots may be taken in the summer.

VARIETIES: P. grandiflorus & var. album, Mariesii.

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