Golden Acre Home & Garden Centre's Plant Library

Description:

Balloon-like buds swell and open in the garden to large, bell-shaped lavender-blue flowers with clearly defined darker veins; an excellent bedding or container plant

Ornamental Features

Fuji Blue Balloon Flower has masses of beautiful spikes of blue bell-shaped flowers with violet overtones, creamy white eyes and purple veins rising above the foliage from late spring to mid summer, which are most effective when planted in groupings. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its narrow leaves remain dark green in colour throughout the season.

Landscape Attributes

Fuji Blue Balloon Flower is an herbaceous perennial with a mounded form. Its relatively fine texture sets it apart from other garden plants with less refined foliage.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Fuji Blue Balloon Flower is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Fuji Blue Balloon Flower will grow to be about 24 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 18 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 15 inches apart. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an herbaceous perennial, this plant will usually die back to the crown each winter, and will regrow from the base each spring. Be careful not to disturb the crown in late winter when it may not be readily seen!

This plant should be grown in a location with partial shade or which is shaded from the hot afternoon sun. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

Fuji Blue Balloon Flower is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It can be used either as 'filler' or as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, depending on the height and form of the other plants used in the container planting. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, most plants cannot be expected to survive the winter if left in containers outdoors, and this plant is no exception. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.