When Does the Balloon Flower Bloom? Flower Meaning and Potted Planting Method Explained in Detail
The balloon flower, also known as bellflower, bundle flower, and monk's cap flower, is a common perennial herbaceous plant that is widely cultivated for its high ornamental value. So when does the balloon flower bloom? What is its flower meaning? Can it be grown in pots? How do you plant it?
Blooming time:
The balloon flower blooms relatively late. From July to September, 1 or several blue or blue-purple flowers are produced at the top of the stem. When in bud, they swell into a balloon shape. The corolla is bell-shaped with five lobes at the tip, and when hanging downward it closely resembles an ancient bell, which is why it is also called bell-shaped flower. It fruits from August to October.
Flower meaning:
Red balloon flower meaning: the red buried deep in the heart
Kikyo's shrine maiden outfit has a red lower half, and compared with the white upper garment, it stings the eyes. The red beauty spreads over, impossible to escape. But even in such vivid clothing, she is still delicately beautiful, and one can hardly see the trace the red leaves on Kikyo's soul. Yet remember that in the ending song “my will” of the first part of “Inuyasha”, Kikyo's background showed large patches of manjusaka (higanbana), gorgeous and despairing. Holding a bow and arrow, shooting the arrow with movements as smooth as flowing clouds and water, with powerful might. Kikyo seems to become another person, red dyeing her, instantly covering the whole scene. Time freezes at this moment, and one sees only that red seeming to blot out the sky and earth, only Kikyo, only red, only that arrow. In the air, warm, tinged with the warmth of red.
Purple balloon flower meaning: natural purple
There is a slightly blue light purple, similar in color to the few balloon flowers in front of Kikyo's grave in the TV version. People are often heard praising Kikyo's temperament, not only her pretty appearance, unworldly clothing, and clear gaze, but also a temperament emanating from within, a slightly cold temperament. Without needing any adornment, Kikyo's nobility is innate, like proud and dignified purple, sacred, fearless, forever revered. Kikyo's face seems always to carry a layer of white light, and those few balloon flowers in front of Kikyo's grave also glow white in the rain, lonely and cold, never yielding, surviving strongly through wind and rain, like the elegant balloon flower akin to violets.
The legend of the balloon flower:
1. The legend says Doraji was the name of a girl who fell in love with a young man who made his living by cutting firewood. They lived in poverty and owed a debt. When the landlord seized her to settle the debt, her lover angrily hacked the landlord to death and was thrown into prison. The girl died of grief, and before she died she asked to be buried on the mountain path the young man had to take to cut firewood. The next spring, small purple flowers bloomed on her grave, and people called them “Doraji” (the Korean word for “balloon flower”), and made it into a song that was sung, praising the girl's pure love.
2. There was a girl named Jiegeng who fell in love with a boy, but that boy went to a faraway place to learn immortal arts. Jiegeng waited and waited right there, until she transformed into a flower. Therefore one of the balloon flower's meanings is hopeless love. When the boy returned, he learned of Jiegeng's story from others, felt guilty, and so stayed by Jiegeng's side, life after life. Jiegeng gave him one lifetime, but he gave Jiegeng life after life. Therefore another meaning of the balloon flower is eternal love.
Potted planting method
1. Seed selection. Select seeds of uniform size, plump, and pure in color produced by 2a-old balloon flowers. Place the selected seeds in sunlight for 1~2d to help break dormancy and kill parasitic fungi on the seed surface.
2. Seed treatment. In potted cultivation, to further increase the seed germination rate, soak the selected seeds with 100mg/L GA3 or 20% PEG6000. The soaking time is 10h. After soaking, remove them, wrap them well in gauze, and germinate them in an incubator at 25°C under dark conditions for 10h, then prepare to sow.
3. Potting and fertilizing. Pot size: diameter and height of 33cm and 28cm, so that the container meets the requirements of the balloon flower plant's root development. Thoroughly mix the screened sandy loam with high organic matter content and no pollution, and put a fixed amount into each pot. Because balloon flower seeds are tiny and not drought-tolerant in the early planting stage, before planting the soil in the pot should be screened fine to improve the soil's water and fertilizer retention capacity and benefit root development. First lay a layer of small stones diagonally at the bottom of the pot and wrap them with newspaper, then insert a hard plastic pipe along the pot edge into the newspaper. Apply sufficient base fertilizer. Among commonly applied fertilizers, phosphate fertilizer should be applied all at once in sufficient amount, while nitrogen fertilizer and potassium fertilizer should be used in appropriate amounts according to ratio, and in the later growth stage they can be applied as a top dressing according to growth conditions. The initial base fertilizer should be fully mixed with the soil in the pot and put into the pot.