The balloon flower is usually available from garden retailers at a relatively low price from August. Here everything about the location and care of the perennial plant.
From July, the balloon flower will once again bring a breath of fresh air to the garden bed. What is striking is their mostly bright violet-blue flower color, with breeds in white and pink as well as with filled calyxes often being offered. The perennial got its name here because of its balloon-like flower buds, which are enthroned like small balls on their stems before they open up into the imposing flowers.
If you now want to get these beautiful flowers in the garden, then we have some tips for the location and care of the balloon flower.
Important information on choosing a location
You should actually plant the balloon flower in the spring, if possible only in a place with full sun, where it can spread a little over the years. Balloon flowers only slowly increase in width and consistently grow up to 60 centimeters high.
The balloon flower loves a nutrient-rich soil, which you can enrich with organic fertilizer (e.g. mature compost) beforehand.
| Large-flowered Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) | |
|---|---|
| Growth: | upright, clump-forming |
| Growth: | 40 - 60 cm |
| Growth: | 30 - 40 cm |
| Flower: | July to August |
| Location: | Sun to partial shade |
| Floor: | fresh, permeable, rich in humus |
How to properly care for the balloon flower
» Fertilize:
Every year, the balloon flowers sprout freshly in spring and are then unfortunately all too readily soughtimge by snails, from which you should definitely protect the flowers. During this sprouting period, they should also be given a single, albeit plentiful, dose of complete fertilizer.
» casting:
Afterwards, the balloon flower actually requires very little care. However, you should provide them with irrigation water as regularly as possible, if not for a longer period of timeraining. However, you should avoid waterlogging, otherwise the roots will begin to rot.
» Encourage flowering:
The balloon flower usually only starts to bloom in midsummer from around the end of July, but then until late summer. If you then regularly remove the withered flowers, you will encourage new flowering.
» pruning:
At the end of the flowering phase, you must then completely cut back the balloon flower and overwinter in this way. In principle, the perennials are among the hardy plants, but you should still protect young perennials with some brushwood during the first three years of life.
» Propagation:
You can easily propagate the perennial perennial by carefully dividing it with a spade. However, the division should only take place after the age of at least 4 years, when the plant has grown well.