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Provided
the site is well sheltered, as in a courtyard, a north-facing wall is
usually the best for outdoor planting in mild temperate regions within
the northern hemisphere for, like many Chilean plants, it is used to a
coot mountain climate and is not injured by a little frost. Within the
glasshouse it may be grown permanently in a container, but is much
better planted out in beds and trained on a trellis. The beds must have
thorough drainage, with an acid soil not above pH 5.5, and a good indoor
growing compost might be based on 3 parts fibrous peat to 2 parts loam,
with the addition of sharp sand and charcoal, watering regularly with a
weak solution of potassium-rich liquid fertiliser. Outdoors or in, the
Chilean bellflower needs to be kept cool and shaded during the summer,
with ample water at the roots while growth is active, and a daily spray
with tepid water until the flowers begin to open. With its natural
habitat amid shady mountain forest, it detests long exposure to strong
sunlight and needs a cool, moist, lime-free soil in shade or semi-shade,
such as it might find in a sheltered garden. Only in cold districts need
it be regarded as a conservatory plant. Where space is limited, the
roots may be enclosed by boxing them in with slates or bricks set below
the ground, allowing up to 1sq in (10sq ft) of space, for it has a
tendency to spread widely when unrestricted, and often sends up shoots
some distance away from the main stem.
In Californian gardens under the influence of Pacific breezes the
Chilean bellflower grows to perfection, and is often planted so as to
climb a tree, where it revels in the shade of the foliage, hi the
British Royal Horticultural Society Gardens in Surrey it is treated as a
greenhouse plant, and sheaves of its crimson flowers hang on their wiry
stems from the roof ties of the temperate house there, combining with a
display of jasmines and honeysuckles; but at nearby London it grows
outdoors, flowering from September to December, facing west on a
sheltered wall At Tresco Abbey in the frost-free but gate-swept Isles of
Scilly, it climbs a shady north-facing corner of the ruined abbey,
displaying a succession of carmine bells from August to Christmas. In
Hampshire on the English south coast it grows on a house wad in company
with the beautiful crimson-flowered Philesia magellanica and a rare
bi-generic hybrid between the two species - x Philageria veitchii. Again
in England in a Somerset garden it occupies a wall facing north, where
it scrambles through the branches of a tall camellia; and at Powis
Castle in mid Wales, given a favoured spot on the terrace, it grows with
bright blue ceanothus and tender rhododendrons such as the sweet scented
Fragrantissima; nearby, on the watt of a small private house where the
garden, is not so sheltered, it flowers well in a container, but is
taken indoors every winter.
Further north, at Dundonnell House in the Western Highlands of
Scotland, it is on the verge of tenderness and grows in a conservatory
in company with fruiting orange trees and the crimson coral plant,
Berberidopsis corallina; while at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh
it grows on a south-facing wall, where it derives some shade from a
silver wattle, and flowers quite well - but the best specimen to be seen
at Edinburgh occupies a cool, partially shaded glasshouse. Beautiful
specimens are to be seen growing outdoors in Ireland, and at Mount Usher
on the slopes of the Wicklow Mountains, the pink and white forms have
been planted to climb an alder together on the banks of a brook, so that
the large waxy bells can hang gracefully over the water.
Rooted suckers are often obtainable from old plants, otherwise the
most reliable method of propagation is by layering before growth
commences in the early spring: short trails of the previous season's
growth should be brought down to the ground, giving a slight twist at
the point to be rooted, conveniently about 15cm (6in) from the tip; long
shoots can be layered progressively in loops, pegging no more than four
layers per shoot When the stock plant is growing in a greenhouse, layers
may conveniently be pegged into well-crocked seed-boxes which must be at
least 13cm (Sin) deep, using a compost of 2 parts sharp sand to I part
sphagnum peat, to which has been added a little superphosphate. Care
should be taken to ensure that the sand does not have an alkaline
reaction. Two layers can be struck in one box, the shoots bent sharply
and pegged so that the base of the layers lies midway between the crock
layer and the surface of the compost By the following spring they should
be ready to lift and separate, taking care not to break the brittle
young roots. At this stage they should be potted individually, using a
fightfy fertilised but lime-free compost consisting of 1 part very
fibrous team, 1 part sphagnum peat, 1 part sharp sand and 1 part
charcoal. The young plants should be kept moist and shaded, and the
roots must not be allowed to become potbound. With outdoor stock plants,
individual 15cm (6m) pots should be used initially instead of boxes,
plunging them in the ground wherever the layers conveniently reach. When
frost Is expected outdoor layers should be given protection during the
winter beneath a mound of ashes or peat; when rooting is well advanced
in the spring they should be severed and repotted as above, and grown on
for the summer in a cool, shaded greenhouse.
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