Common Name: bonnet bellflower
Type: Vine
Family: Campanulaceae
Native Range: Eastern Asia
Zone: 6 to 8
Height: 10.00 to 15.00 feet
Spread: 3.00 to 6.00 feet
Bloom Time: August to September
Bloom Description: Green / purple (outside) with violet spots (inside)
Sun: Full sun to part shade
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flower: Showy
Culture
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers sandy loams. Winter hardy to USDA Zone 6, so it is advisable to grow this vine in a sheltered location with a winter mulch in the St. Louis area (Zone 5b to 6a).
Noteworthy Characteristics
Codonopsis lanceolata is a perennial, twining vine in the bellflower family. It typically grows to 10-15' tall but dies back to the ground each winter. Features greenish, nodding, bell-shaped flowers (to 1.25" long) with pale bluish-purple shading on the outside and with violet spotting and/or striping inside. Blooms in late summer. Elliptic-ovate green leaves (2-3" long) are clustered at the branch ends. Roots of this Asian native vine are commonly used in Korean cooking. Plants in the genus Codonopsis are sometimes commonly called bonnet bellflower.
Genus name comes from the Greek words kodon meaning a bell and opsis meaning resembling for the shape of the corolla.
Specific epithet means lance-shaped leaves.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems.
Uses
Perhaps best woven through large shrubs. May be grown on trellises in somewhat the same manner as clematis.