Chinese Bellflower, Jie Geng Platycodon grandiflorus

This pretty dainty blue flower is much tougher than you would think. It’s a herbaceous perennial coping with frost and it even survives our unforgiving clay soil under a gum tree!

Chinese bellflower is so pretty that I haven’t eaten it but the upper young leaves are reportedly eaten and the root is used in tonic soups.

Platycodon is used in Chinese medicine for lowering blood sugar, hypertension, diabetes, respiratory illnesses and more.