Queen of campanulas: from Greece of course!

Campanula incurva

At what point do we declare something a winner? I have grown dozens of campanulas in my day--and I think I love each and every species I've tried. But one has gradually risen to the top in my estimation. 

The flowers are comparatively enormous--very similar to Centerbury Bells (C. medium) only covering a mound of pleasant foliage rather than on a rather gawky biennial stalk.

Here it is at Denver Botanic Gardens' Rock Alpine Garden: it seems to like to grow just about anywhere...sun or shade. It can grow flat on open ground or on a steep slope or crevice.

Here it is trying to take over my new crevice garden at home....

It is incredibly long blooming: you can see the buds coming on and many have passed. Where happy it can bloom for four or five months...

Here is a fine colony at Mike Kintgen's home garden.. I have a hunch many of these are self sown seedlings. The literature says this is monocarpic:  I've had plants that have bloomed three years in succession. Everywhere I've grown it, it seeds around gently so you never seem to lose it altogether...a charming trait. Many of my favorite campanulas are long gone...                                                                                                                            

I end on my favorite planting of this species, when I had it on the side of the waterfall in my garden. I have not seen this in the wild (it's largely restricted to northcenrral Greece.)  There are only a handful of records of it on I-Naturalist, mostlu not far from the coast half way between Athens and Thessalonica. I suspect that in nature it's a chasmophyte, like so many Greek campanulas. High on my list to look for my next trip to my ancestral land.

Meanwhile, I can relish it at home. Look for it on exchanges this winter--lots of wise rock gardeners know and love this plant which is prodigal of seed and beauty.