The Platycodon Grandiflora’s Beauty is More Than Skin Deep
The purple, blue, pink and white flowers of Balloon Flower plants, Platycodon grandiflora, are a lovely addition to the yard and garden landscape. All varieties of balloon flowers are perennials with the added advantage of being able to grow in full sun to partial shade for many years of enjoyment.
The unique pillow puff or balloon shape is a favorite of many a gardener. The flowers puff up like tiny balloons as the flower grows until the blossom bursts with a pop to open into a five-petalled star-shaped flowers. Some are double petaled, providing 10-petaled double start shaped flowers.
These plants hold a surprise: the long taproot is edible and medicinal and used extensively in Asian cooking and medicine.
How to Grow Balloon Flower Plants
Balloon Flower Size
- Dwarf Balloon Flower Plants grow an average size of 8″ height x 18″ around
- Common Balloon Flower Plants grow an average size of 24″ tall x 12″ wide
Balloon Flower Varieties
The dwarf variety are a perfect compact plant for growing in pots or window boxes. The average size at maturity is a plant height of 8″ by 18″ wide.
Cultivars of Platycodon grandiflora
Take your pick of purple, blue and/or white balloon flowers. Each has it’s beauty grown alone or intermingled for a multicolored display, depending on your landscape setting and goals.
- Astra double blue
- Fuji Blue – tends to be the one most people call “purple balloon flowers”
- Fuji white (pictured below)
- Komachi – baby blue
- Sentimental Blue
- Hakone Double Blue
- Double Pink
- Double White
- Mother of Pearl
- Sentimental Blue.
- Apoyama.
Uses in Landscapes
Bell Flowers are excellent flowers for flower gardens and an excellent addition to landscapes and borders. The dwarf variety can be good ground covers leading up to the full size varieties around foundation areas needing coverage, and especially lovely around accent rocks and boulders.
This regular size balloon plants are a perfect mid-height border plant as well as an accent plant for hedges.
GardensAll community member, Larry Gray, contributed the next photo.
Larry said, “I purchased 2 pots of purple and all purchased blooms were purple , then the seeds came back as purple or white !
It’s an excellent, self multiplying perennial.”
Care for Balloon Plants
- DIFFICULTY: Easy
- LIGHT: Full to partial shade
- SOIL: Average or rich soil, well drained, slightly acidic
- WATER: adequate water, moist soil –
- can tolerate occasional drought
- may get root rot if too wet
- SIZE: Average height 24″ inches tall, (range 12″-36″ inches tall) by 12″ inches around
- FERTILIZER: mulch in fall – pine straw is a good choice if you need more acidity
- Average Soil – None needed
- Poor Soil – apply slow release fertilizer in spring
- FLOWERS / FLOWERING:
- Reliable bloomers with (an area dependent) late spring – late summer bloom time
- Colors of balloon flower include blue, pink and white flowers
- Excellent cut flowers
About Balloon Flower
- SPECIES: herbaceous flowering perennial plant
- FAMILY: Campanulaceae (includes bellflower and lobelia)
- GENUS: Platycodon (lone member of) – Greek meaning: Broad Bell (platys = broad + kodon = bell)
- GROW ZONES: 5-9
Balloon Flower Origin
Like balloons released to travel far and wide, so too has the lovely balloon flower. A native plant of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan and Eastern Siberia), today, Platycodon grandiflora is popular globally as an ornamental plant.
If you enjoy exploring the more expansive uses of plants you may enjoy the following information.
Common Names for Balloon Flower — Platycodon Grandiflorus
- Bell Flower
- Balloon Flower (English)
- Chinese bellflower (jiegeng)
- Japanese bellflower (kikyo)
- Korean bellflower (doraji)
Propagating Balloon Flowers
Balloon flower plants easily self seed and propagate from roots and seeds.
Propagation by Seed
You can buy balloon flower seeds, or, if you already have plants, you can harvest the seeds from your existing plants. After the blooms die, collect the dried brown pods at the end of the stem. You can place the seed pods in a paper bag and label, or whatever is your favorite seeding storying system.
Alternately, you can leave the pods to drop naturally and self seed, or help them out by deadheading and dropping them wherever you want them to grow. Each dried pod has hundreds of tiny black and brown seeds reminiscent of grains of black rice.
Propagation by Transplanting
If propagating by roots, gently dig out the earth surrounding the outside of a clump of balloon flowers away from the main body of roots. Let your eyes guide you by following the natural development of the plant and gently separating and cutting the roots in a sparse section between the main taproots. Avoid cutting the large taproot, (think dandelion, parsnip, carrot like roots) for best results. although a but or nicked taproot can also survive.
Once you have a clump with a taproot place the balloon flower plant into its new hole prepared with compost. Did down deep enough for the taproot, place plant and fill soil around it. Water immediately and regularly while the plant establishes itself in its new home.
Be sure to cover and water the existing plant to keep it protected while it recovered from operation.
Self Propagation by Spreading
CAUTION: Balloon flower plants can be invasive, so keep in mind how they might spread when you plant them. If you don’t want that, you can collect seed pods to keep them from dropping and establishing roots or plant them in pots. However, they’re strong growers and seeds can be carried beyond pots, and roots can send out new shoots.
How to Grow Balloon Flower From Seed
It’s easy to grow balloon flowers from seed. You can sow them directly in a spot or pot with sun to partial shade after the last spring frost. Sprinkle seeds on top of a good bed of about 3 inches rich soil or compost. Water and keep them moist as they’re growing.
You should see new balloon flower sprouts within two weeks and flowers in the first season. Just be sure to keep them moist but not soaked until they get strong and deep enough to thrive.
Can You Grow Balloon Flowers in Pots
Yes! Balloon flowers grow well in pots indoors and out, and do best indoors when placed in a sunny window.
Is Balloon Flower Poisonous?
CAUTION: Some sources list the balloon flower root as poisonous, and yet within the same source, maylist the root as edible. Likely this confusion has to do with the fact that balloon flower root has potent medicinal properties, and any medicine taken in excess, can become toxic.
What’s clear is that the Platycodon grandiflorus has been used for centuries for both food and medicine.
If you treat balloon flower root as the medicinal herb or condiment that it is, which means a sprinkling of small amounts and not as a main ingredient or dish, you should be fine. However, as the saying goes, “One man’s medicine is another man’s poison.”
So whenever trying anything new, always do your research, consult with experts and if you proceed, start with the smallest recommended dosage.
Most medicine taken in excess can become toxic. Same for herbs. So research and consult books and experts to be safe.
Is Balloon Flower Edible?
Yes! All parts of balloon flower plants have been used for food and medicine in Asian countries for centuries. The prominent medicinal properties are in the root of the balloon flower plant and harvested in spring or fall of 3-5 year old plants.
However, the balloon flowers, young, tender shoots and leaves are also used in food and medicine.
Balloon Flower Plant Edible Uses
In Korea, the balloon flower root is eaten raw, cooked and medicinally in teas and tinctures like this