How to care for Bellwort plants

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.