Don't have any advice for keeping it under control. I've had it for the 13 years I've lived in my house. I prefer to focus on the fact that it's a groundcover perennial from Europe (versus a weed). It actually is a weed as a weed is an aggressive unwanted plant. At least it's green when it's among the grass.

I gave up a long time ago trying to use weed killers. They only weakened it. I think mine originated in the neighbors yard at the side of his house and crept under the fence. It's now pretty well to some degree in all areas of my back yard.

In the flower beds I just pull on it and it seems to come out, though I am probably leaving some root. That's the thing that makes it so aggressive. Anywhere the 'vine' touches the ground it can root. If you have a yard jam packed full of plants it can easily grow among the plants and you don't notice it right away. then again, I've had the same problem with elm seedlings.

A couple of years ago I saw a variegated form of it in the 'basket stuffers' section at the nursery. Needless to say I ran in horror from that section of the nursery!

Glen

It proliferates in my current yard. Must like something around here because I see a LOT of it in my town vs. when I lived in Winnipeg. My strategy is to pull as much as possible, mow what I can't pull, and NEVER let it go to seed. It's hard to pull because it forms a storage tuber type thing underground that is tougher than the stems so you have to dig while you pull or the leaves just break off and the tuber thing doesn't even flinch.

It is a really, really horrible weed and I actually will not grow any campanulas in this yard anymore because even some of the so-called non-invasive ones completely take over they like my conditions so much.

I think I would be happy with this stuff. My place Lawn etc is full of creeping Charlie. If I live to be 100 I will never get rid of it. I got it many years ago from a Friend?? who never said what it was like.

Beegood, I can sympathize. I also suffer from the creeping Charlie scourge. It was originally planted by the neighbour along the edge of their driveway. Of course it escaped into my lawn when I wasn't smart enough to know about such invasive things. I'd welcome any ideas about how to get rid of it!

I also have creeping charlie and I keep it to a minimum in my front yard by using weed n feed. The weed killer doesn't get rid of it, but it does slow it down while the grass is improved by the fertilizer and crowds it out. I find CC is opportunistic when your lawn is sparse and it's the hardest to control in shade. In both cases of CC and bellflower, you never really get rid of it unless you get your entire yard's soil removed and replaced, and manage to keep it from sneaking back from the neighbours.

Creeping Bellflower will propagate from even leaf pieces so all you are doing while mowing is spreading it more. It's like purslane in its prolific nature. I pull and use a dandelion digger to work on the root/tubers and make sure I have pulled everywhere I am going to mow.

I used Ortho Weed B Gone and just dipped a rag in the solution and wiped the plant. It kept the death to the bellflower.

Sigh! I came and read the responses AFTER i mowed, so i went back out and raked up the leaves! So i'll make sure to do that when i mow...

Is the Ortho Weed B Gone the same as the Scott's EcoSense Weed B Gone? I've bought some of the ecosense and i've sprayed a little section of the grass... Is the rag because you have it in beds? I will need to spray more, but I have a little hope now :)

Thanks!

Roundup works wonderful on that bellflower here. I got some plants 15 years ago from a neighbor, when I didn't know what I was getting. After spraying a few years ago to get rid of it, I only have two little pieces that came up this year. That's it.

I buy the concentrated Roundup Weather Max from the elevator in the 10 litre jug. It works great!

Brenda

My once-sunny back flower garden (about 50' by 8') has long since become very shady and dry, thanks to the now-mature trees and shrubs I planted there 15 or more years ago. So the stunning display of lilies has died out or been moved, as well as most of the other showy plants. Even the martagon lilies no longer get enough light to bloom. But wait, several years ago I noticed a patch of tall, bright, bell-like flowers that came from who-knows-where, but seemed to thrive even in the shade and dry ground. Once I found out they were creeping bellflower I resolved to get more of this wonderful plant. A friend in an older part of town has it running rampant in their garden and along the back lane, so I dug up a bunch of clumps and planted them throughout my garden. Yes, I knew the warnings, but this plant offered the promise of bright blooms in a garden that was mostly blah after the spring bulbs were over. That was about two years ago. Of course, since then I have read every story I have seen on creeping bellflower, and they have been universally negative. Had I really invited Satan into my garden? This spring, I noticed the plants were beginning to invade into my lawn, precisely as all the articles claimed it would. So now I've gone into destructo mode. I made repeated attacks on the original patch with roundup, and that clump appears to be dead. However its runners or seedlings continue to pop up in a nearby patch of grape hyacinths and daffodils. Vigilance will be required! And on the other end of the garden I had left some of transplants to grow, but this current thread was the final straw, so today I went out with roundup and a small paintbrush and decided to try to kill those off before they become a permanent garden feature. Kind of hate to do it -- they are very pretty, give a long season of bloom, and can really tough it out. Will be interesting to see if I will reign victorious or be totally owned.

Just wondering if anyone here has good news regarding the bellflower.

Have you managed to get rid of it?

Last year our neighbour had an "expert" redo their yard and used a bobcat to plow a mass of bellflower into my yard before putting up a new fence.!! I had no idea what was in that mass of dirt until it was too late.

I've done everything I can in my mind to stop me from digging it up and throwing it back over the fence.

I still might :)

Good luck. I have creeping bellflower that I did not plant and have been fighting for years despite never letting it get to blooming stage. It doesn't help that some are growing amongst my daylilies.

Also have clustered bellflower, which I bought and am trying to get rid of too. I am not a huge fan of bellflower in general, even the peach-leafed one is proving a bit too invasive but that one is easier to pull out.

Best option would be to dig the area up and sift through and toss out all remnants of the plant. It is even more tenacious than goutweed, if you can believe.

I have it too, and I bought it, so it's my fault. I dig it up as much as I can but it still "creeps" around and pops up in odd places. I did have some success smothering a couple of areas with several layers of newspaper and bark mulch, but of course it "crept" out from underneath and into whatever is planted there. I guess it's keep on digging.

NAF, i'd do that - fling it over the fence!

I know I've gone back & forth on the use of Round Up over the years, but I use it sparingly on bellflower as it turns up in my flower beds, and it is quite effective. I still have a serious infestation in some hedges etc., but in the flower beds I have been fighting it and I have managed to keep on top of it not too badly.

I'm really against using Roundup anywhere, but I guess in this instance, since it's primarily between the garage and fence, I'll have to give it a try. Maybe I can get it before it invades the good parts of the yard.

I got another vote yesterday for "fling it back over the fence", LOL!! Boy am I tempted.....they're not friendly neighbours.

One year to the day since the last comment on this thread. I don't suppose anyone has had any luck? I just found out the terror in my front yard is creeping bellflower... I tried digging up the roots and tubers, but it would probably take weeks to get the whole thing done... so I gave up and sprayed Ortho Weed B Gon because it was recommended to spray once every seven days. It won't kill it in the first go, but it will hopefully weaken it enough to keep digging and sifting without losing a ton of ground (pun not intended.)

You need to be careful of using some of the diluted products because plants can build up resistance if they are not killed outright. It would be a good idea to use 2 different products alternately. I sprayed an area along one of my tree lines with a full strength Round up type product, it kills most stuff , the grass that was there was a type that I didn't like anyway. That took out 99% of the bellflower, this year I just had to do a couple of spots. I also use a product called Par Three, it has a three chemical mixture but doesn't hurt grass unless you over do it.

I`ve had the most success with digging and sifting through the soil - I had two flower beds that it was rampant in so I dug up all the flowers, tossed them and spent many an hour digging up a small section at a time and sifting through it. That was 2 years ago and so far, just a few small sprouts have shown up and I dig those up immediately.

The problem with creeping bellflower is that the roots are really brittle, so a lot of it still remains in the soil (to produce a new plant), even after you've dug it up.

Hello Denise, thank you so much for the tips! I am glad you have won the battle.

City Garden Nymph...

....I must be. I love my creeping BellFlower!!! I love that the bees love it and I love that the country side now echoes in my backyard oasis, right downtown Toronto. I see how its 3 x the mass as last year and I see them sway in the breeze and shoot up high above my ornamentals. So enjoyable, unstaid and playful. There is so much to love about these beauties we passively admire at the sides of the highways, heading north to our cottage.... the flowers are, after all, the hats of the faeries. :)

Janlongeway,
Are you sure you're talking about the same plant? When I think about campanulas that grow along the highway I think of harebell or campanula rotundifolia. That is a wildflower and nothing like the invasive creeping bellflower.

As was mentioned by Denise, it will be really hard to get rid of this horrible pest unless you remove the "tubers", which are deep under the surface.

Most people are aware of the thready, delicate roots that connect the plants together as they creep along - and take great efforts to try to remove them - but they often don't know that these are attached here and there to white, carrot-like roots that are very deep down. To really get rid of this fiend, you have to dig out the carrot-like roots... otherwise, it will just keep coming back.

Campanula rapunculoides has escaped into the wild all over North America (from gardens), but I certainly hope it's not visibly lining the highways wherever you are, janlongeway... I too hope you're actually seeing Campanula rotundifolia, a completely different native species (that's also very worthy of growing in the garden).

I brought Creeping Bellflower home from a plant exchange a number of years ago. What a mistake! I didn't realize that it was invasive. It took time for me to recognize the starter leaves and the mature plant. I've been in a continous a battle with it over the last few years. Today, I have just thrown out most of my beautiful perennials that were in bloom from the garden this weed is in because I'm trying to start over. I am going to use Weed Be Gone for a second time directly on what is remaining of this weed. If that doesn't work, I will try something else, and eventually cover it with newspaper, and then cedar mulch. Hope this works, but I won't give up. I want my garden back and this evil weed out for good!

I've spent almost every weekend since I last posted with a garden fork ripping out roots and pulling up tubers... just about ready to give up for the season, ha. Destroyed half of my perennials in the process. It's in my grass and all around my lilac bush, which isn't much to look at (probably because of all of the creeping bellflower) but I really don't want to pay to have someone remove it. The roots.... the roots are IMPOSSIBLE.

Hmn..looks like a need with herbicide, not sure if I have it,...have seen some blue similar looking flowers in the bush, will have to check them out, in the nursery I've got other nasty weeds which I can't spray....too risky. Do they spread locally or further?

I have used two methods to rid my gardens and lawn of this dastardly weed. some gardens I completely dug up, discarded all perennials and sifted through the soil for all the roots - a very tedious process but pretty successful. The other route I took to tackle it in the lawn, around plants I didn`t want to lose - Roundup concentrated with a sponge paintbrush - again, a little tedious but successful. You need the concentrated Roundup not the regular stuff.

whatever you do, do NOT drop even a smidgeon of the stringy white roots you dig up- instant new patch of bellflower! I'm going to try something poisonous because I'm convinced digging at it just makes the damn stuff worse. Wish I knew where it came from in my garden- so I could sue or something!

My house in Spokane WA is over one hundred years old and I believe the bellflowers have been there just as long. Ten years ago, when I moved in, there was very little flower garden, but the bellflowers were certainly there. At least they added some color. I have since gone through the stages of the horror of finding out what they they are, gone through several stages of attempted eradication from laborious digging to herbicides and have settled into a certain relationship with them now...As spring progresses, I pull up the tall, flowering stalks ( that makes up about two big garbage cans full). As the season progresses, I continue to pull them out ( it's very easy weeding as I don't even bend over and don't worry about getting the roots, my goal,is to keep them from obscuring my other ornamentals). I leave the low growing leaves for ground cover and occasionally even allow blooms if they are against a wall or what not. They don't seem to be a bother to my other blooming perennials and since I have dry dappled shade under seven London Plane trees, they compete with violets (another "weed") for the ground cover territory. They seem to be in every garden in town to one extent or another, so I don't feel guilty about allowing them to be there. They seem to have become better behaved over the years and pretty much stay in the areas where they are let go. So far, I don't have them in my small bits of grass which are bounded by stones. I would never voluntarily have planted them, but like many of the liabilities of an old house with much character, we seem to have learned to get along.

https://foragerchef.com/creeping-bellflower/

"The good news, is that you can eat it, and you should–as much as you can find. it’s a member of the larger Asteraceae / daisy family, but unlike it’s edible aster cousins dandelions and sochan (Rudbeckia laciniata) that have stronger flavors, (depending on their age) creeping bellflower has a mild flavor, similar to, but not quite like spinach or other mild, leafy greens you’d cook. Like a lot of other greens you might forage, creeping bellflower is better cooked than it is raw. The leaves, in their fresh state, even when very young, are a bit chewy, and the midrib sticks out a bit. You could technically probably hide a few leaves in a salad, but I hardly see the point when it’s so much better as a pot herb (cooked)."-by foragechef

News for folks who want to eradicate creeping bellflower. I have a tried and true method that will completely eradicate the plant Takes approximately 15 to 30 seconds per plant with no more digging and no collateral damage. I have many testers in Canada and US who all report 100% effective. Any folks interested can contact Lyle at maracon1@shaw.ca

BTW - my neighborhood is completely clean of these weeds. Took me 10 years to figure out how to do this and it works!

I'm not sure what the deal is but we are getting bombarded with spammers today! I've counted at least 4 so far. Best to flag as spam to get them removed.

I will speak for the Creeping Bellflower that cannot defend it's self:

Pollinators love them, ground hogs and/or rabbits feed on them ,the strong roots keep steep banks from eroding, they beautify neglected alleys, it blooms from late June to September.

I find pristine grass lawns saturated in poisonous chemicals to be more offensive, more invasive, more of a threat ecologically...ask yourself- do you ever see birds on a chemically treated lawn? My neighbor pointed out that observation to me, comparing his wild lawn to the lawn chemically treated next to his.

The Creeping Bellflower seems to have reached mythical proportions beyond that of Jack and the Bean Stalk.

Some informatioin about them that does not involve destroying them:

History and Comments: Creeping Bellflower is native to Europe, and was introduced to the United States as a decorative garden flower. Despite its beautiful flowers, Bellflower can be a weed in lawns, where it can choke out grass. It has a very strong root system, which allows it to spread efficiently.. Creeping Bellflower is considered invasive in several Western states as well as in Western Canada. Rapanzul of fairy tale fame takes her name from "rapunculoides" of Campanula rapunculoides.

source: http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/EFG_DEB_SHU/species%20pages/Creeping%20Bellflower/Creeping%20Bellflower.html

To be invasive, a species must adapt to the new area easily. It must reproduce quickly. It must harm property, the economy, or the native plants and animals of the region. Many invasive species are introduced into a new region accidentally.

-source: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/invasive-species/#:~:text=To%20be%20invasive%2C%20a%20species,into%20a%20new%20region%20accidentally.

The Creeping Bellflower is not harming property, the economy, or the animals and I would argue that more native plants have been threatened by humans developing land, growing lawns, and using poisons than by the Creeping Bellflower.

It's guiltiy of growing easily in places humans deem invasive such as their own lawns and gardens. I have yet to discover exactly what native plants are being threatened by Creeping Bellflower- and i have searched for a list to learn what to protect from them.

I admit I LOVE Creeping Bellflowers.

Sue Hughes, I appreciate your love of the bellflower, although I have it invading my blue poppy area, so am a bit worried and getting out the hoe (I don't hope to ever get rid of it) . I think mine is the glomerata variety, 'gifted' by a neighbor many years ago!

My understanding is, the rapunzel story comes from campanula rapunculus, rather than rapunculoides... rapunculus is a biennial, I think?

Just chiming in because I remembered looking that up a few years ago.

Lat62 sorry to hear it's messing up your blue poppy area (would love to grow blue poppies, any beautiful photos to share or advice on growing?)

Campanula glomerata is totally differetn than Creeping Bellflower. They are rather short lived in my area, as my neighbor and I both had them for a year or two and they vanished totally- yet the alleged Creeping Bellflowers are doing well.

With over 500 species of campanulas it does get confusing..

Then to add to the confusion

creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) is identical to the native ladybells, (Adenophora confusa) .and only distinguishable by dissection of the flower.

They are said to be better behaved, so honestly I've never dissected my flowers to find out.

Interesting linke here: http://www.coldclimategardening.com/2007/07/26/campanula-rapunculoides-the-evil-twin/

I simply do not understand how crazy these flowers make people such as this story where a man brags about vandalizing an 'old woman's garden"

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/youshouldnotgrowthis-the-creeping-bellflower-1.3197855?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

Also I did not cross reference my information on the Rapunzel story link I shared..., so thanks for that info!/correction!

Here is my first blue poppy this year beginning to open…

they like our cool damp climate, one silver lining for us :)

maybe try an eastern exposure, rich soil, keep moist and mulched, its worth a try! Think gentle morning sun then shaded in afternoon? They are great, i want more but my garden is pretty full and needs a whole editing overhaul.

I feel terrible about the aggressive gardener clipping his neighbors campanula, how unpleasant and i can imagine the hurt and even anger she might have felt.

he could knock on the door, explain, offer to give her a bouquet picking ‘service’, maybe offer a more desireable plant, etc.

we battle many invasives here in alaska, i think campanula rapunculoides is not one of the worst.

i actually bought seeds of c. rapunculus

but decided against planting.

glomerata spreads way too much for me but the flowers are beautiful.

thanks for your links and great info!

Lat62 Wow your natural woodland garden is gorgeous! The blue poppy is spectacular! I had no idea you were in Alaska! So interesting to see an Alaskan garden! So kind of you to share photos- very inspiring!

As for the mean man ripping out the womans flowers thinking they would "spread to his garden 4 blocks a ways...it seems unlikely to me because- the seeds fall under the plants, they don't blow down the street like a dandy lion seed, and so tiny I have never seen birds interested in eating them to carry and drop, but always see birds eating the Hosta seeds which they do enjoy.

Again...what a pretty woodland garden you have! You should submit your garden to Fine Gardenings "Garden Photo of the Day" they feature all kinds of gardens from very fabulous to humble and all inbetween. Here's the link to see gardens and info to submit to https://www.finegardening.com/garden-photo-of-the-day

I submitted my garden from my first house a while back and submited my neighbors garden, sadly she is a victim of dementia and will have to leave her garden behind to move in with her children so I wanted to do something nice for her...and Fine Gardening accepted both submissions. It was fun, you should consider sharing your Alaskan garden with other gardeners.

Thank you so much, high praise!

We have a short but glorious season, this year being cooler than most so far, but the perennials we can grow seem to love the cool climate.