Actually you must have seen little
bellwort plants growing wild in the woods. Bellwort plants which are also
called wild oats are a native perennial plant common in eastern North America. Bellwort
plants are low-growing plants that have dangling yellow flowers and oval
leaves.
The Bellwort plants can grow to about
24 inches tall and a spread of about 18 inches wide. The carpet of foliage is actually
born on slender rangy stems and it may be lance-like, oval or even heart shaped.
In springtime which is around April to June, brings about the interesting
flowers that hang in bell-shaped butter yellow groups. The dangling blooms are
about one inch long and it can yield a three-chambered fruit.
The location to grow Bellworts
There are a lot of cultivars available
to the home gardener at nurseries and online garden centers. Actually all the
varieties of this plant require part to full shade in soils that are
organically rich and moist. Most of the spaces that have been allowed to retain
a good tree canopy or temperate moist regions like the Pacific Northwest, are
the excellent areas as for where to grow bellworts plant. Bellwort wildflowers
are hardy to United States Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 to
9. If you can provide them with shelter from the full rays of the sun and also
plenty of moisture, you will have the sunny flowers for years to come.
How to grow Bellwort Plants
One of the best ways to start
bellwort plants is from division. Make sure you don’t go out into the woods and
harvest the plants. Bellwort plants are readily available from nurseries. Seed
starting requires a careful approach. Actually the germination rate is not really
optimal and the bellwort plant requires conditional cues from the environment
to sprout. From my little experience growing bellwort from divided roots or
separating stolens is a proven method for starting new plants. What you just
need to do is to simply dig up the plant in late winter to early spring and cut
it into two sections. The bellwort plant naturally multiplies itself from the
stolens or sprouting stems it sends out from the base plant.
How to care for Bellwort plant
This plant needs rich moist soil but
it should not be boggy. Make sure the area you are planting the bellwort plant drains
well. You can work in some generous amounts of organic compost or leaf litter
to a depth of at least six inches. Make sure you choose areas under the plants
or thickly populated shrubby spaces where protection from hot sun can be found.
You can mulch around the bellwort plants in colder zones in fall. Actually the
foliage dies back and rises again in spring, which simply means pruning or
trimming is not necessary. Make sure you watch for slug and snail damage and
excess moisture.
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