Large-flowered Bellwort
Uvularia grandiflora
Also known as: Merrybells
Large-flowered bellwort emerges looking wilted — the new shoots hang limp and pale and unfurl only as they rise — and gardeners regularly assume the plant has failed in its first spring. Its leaves are perfoliate, pierced through by the stem, which separates it at a glance from every other spring woodlander of its size. The flowers are long twisted yellow bells dangling beneath the foliage, so the plant is easier to appreciate crouched down than from standing height. Its seeds carry a fleshy appendage that ants collect and haul back to their nests, which is how a colony creeps outward a few inches a year — slowly enough that establishment takes several seasons. After flowering the stems arch out into a substantial two-foot mound that holds clean foliage all summer if the soil stays moist. It wants real shade and will scorch in an exposed spot.
- Family
- Colchicaceae
- Type
- wildflower
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 1.5–2 ft
- Spacing
- 1–1.5 ft apart
- Light
- shade
- Soil moisture
- moist
- Soil pH
- neutral, alkaline
- Bloom
- May
- Bloom colors
- yellow
- Wildlife value
- pollinators
- Landscape uses
- border, naturalizing
- Native states
- AL, AR, CT, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NH, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV