Peach-leaved Bellflower; Old Common Names,
"Peach-bels" and "Steeple-bels"; Nat. Ord.Campanulaceæ.
This good "old-fashioned" perennial has had a place in English gardens
for several hundred years; it is still justly and highly esteemed. It is
a well-known plant, and as the specific name is descriptive of the
leaves, I will only add a few words of Gerarde's respecting the flowers:
"Alongst the stalke growe many flowers like bels, sometime white, and
for the most part, of a faire blewe colour; but the bels are nothing so
deepe as they of the other kindes, and these also are more delated and
spred abroade then any of the reste." The varieties include single blue
(type) and white, double blue, and different forms of double white.
In all cases the corolla is cup or broad bell shaped, and the flowers
are sparingly produced on slightly foliaged stems, 18in. to 3ft. high;
there are, however, such marked distinctions belonging to C. p. alba
fl.-pl. in two forms that they deserve[Pg 51] special notice; they are very
desirable flowers, on the score of both quaintness and beauty. I will
first notice the kind with two corollas, the inner bell of which will be
more than an inch deep, and about the same in diameter. The outer
corolla is much shorter, crumpled, rolled back, and somewhat marked with
green, as if intermediate in its nature between the larger corolla and
the calyx. The whole flower has a droll but pleasing form, and I have
heard it not inaptly called "Grandmother's Frilled Cap." The other kind
has five or more corollas, which are neatly arranged, each growing less
as they approach the centre. In all, the segments are but slightly
divided, though neatly formed; this flower is of the purest white and
very beautiful, resembling a small double rose. It is one of the best
flowers to be found at its season in the borders, and for cutting
purposes I know none to surpass it; it is clean and durable. So much are
the flowers esteemed, that the plant is often grown in pots for forcing
and conservatory decoration, to which treatment it takes kindly.
In the open all the above varieties grow freely in any kind of garden
soil, but if transplanted in the autumn into newly-dug quarters they
will in every way prove more satisfactory; this is not necessary, but if
cultivation means anything, it means we should adopt the best-known
methods of treatment towards all the plants we grow, and certainly some
of the above Bellflowers are deserving of all the care that flowers are
worth.