Don’t let Creeping Bellflower take over your local park or block!

Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) spreads underground but it also spreads by seed. Each flower stalk can produce up to 15,000 seeds, and those seeds can stay viable in the soil for up to seven years.

That means even a single flowering plant left alone can infest an entire neighborhood or park over time.

Pollinated flowers can produce seed pods (their “fruit”) within two weeks, so scout your property or local park at least once a week during the growing season. If you miss a flower once, you’ve got a second chance during your next walkthrough.

If You’re in a Park or Natural Area

If you can’t use targeted spraying, pull the whole plant. Yes, you’ll leave the mother tuber behind, but you’ll buy time. Often, it’s better to pull 100 plants than spending the time to dig out one. Bag and trash the flowers. Do not compost it, no matter what your city says. Focus on isolated plants or small patches over dense infestations to slow the spread.

If You Plan to Spray Later

Do not dig.
Digging now breaks roots and prevents you from getting the herbicides down into the mother tubers.

Instead, just snip off the flower stalk with scissors or pruners. Leave the rest of the plant intact. Let it continue growing until you're ready to apply herbicide.

Here’s why:

• The leaves act as pathways—feeding the herbicide into the roots

• Digging now will cut those tubes off and make the plant harder to kill

• If you remove too much now, you'll just trigger dormancy or side shoots

Cutting the flower stalk doesn’t harm the plant—but it does stop the seeds from maturing.

You Can Pull It Off!

If you see Creeping Bellflower in flower—you must act. You don’t need to do everything at once, but you must stop it from seeding. Pull it. Bag it. Flag it. Use a purple flag (free for BELL NO! volunteers if requested) to mark the location so you can monitor for regrowth. Then return later with a treatment plan.