I was given this campanula some years ago and if I ever had a cultivar name for it, I have long since lost it. But is it not pretty? I am particularly fond of blue flowers so this one, combined with pastel roses, has been delighting me. Looking on line, it may be Campanula La Belle but there are quite a few double selections available so it may not be. The flower spikes in late spring to early summer stand maybe 60cm high and don’t need staking. For the rest of the time, it just forms a neat plant, low to the ground with longish, narrow pointed leaves lying nearly flat. I will have only been given one plant but lifting and dividing it from time to time has now given me enough to cover a good area.
There are many different campanulas though I had no idea how many until I looked up the plant family. Some 500 different species count as quite a few, especially when one adds in subspecies, variants and hybrids. We have a charming one that grows in flat mats in the rockery and various different ones in other locations, including the form that is commonly known as Canterbury Bells. Some are annuals, some biennial (in other words they flower in the second year, set seed and die) and some are fully perennial. They are northern hemisphere plants spread across a huge range of conditions from alpine to subtropical. Blue is the most common colour, often with a lilac tinge, but there are pink or white options as well. In the wild, the vast majority will flower single. Double forms such as mine will have been selected out as unusual.
First published in the Waikato Times and reprinted here with their permission.
1) I have not made a great study of artificial Christmas trees but from what I can see, there is a vast range and both quality and price are equally variable. They are not as easy to customise as a living tree (or a dying tree, to be precise, if you have one without roots). There is a certain danger of ending up with one that looks similar to a shopping centre tree, especially if you opt for decorations that are restrained and unified as is favoured by many designers. For many, much of the charm of the traditional tree lies in the mishmash of family decorations passed down the decades.
3) If you have a suitable tree outdoors, decorating it with expendable decorations can be a festive greeting to be shared with passers-by. These are thujas. Norfolk Island pines look magnificent with a star on the top if you can work out how to reach their elevated heights. I have seen it done, though I am not sure how one would manage without a cherry picker or a tree-climbing monkey in the family. But folk are sufficiently enterprising to festoon their houses in Christmas lights (and pay the power bill) so no doubt there are some quite capable of decorating trees outside.
4) Our cute little Picea albertiana conica died. I have wondered about shaking all the dead foliage out of it and recycling it for the next few years as a skeleton Christmas tree. It is the perfect size and shape and could be stored in a shed. However, I recall one year using a large yet shapely dead branch which I spray-painted white. The children were young at the time but they were distinctly underwhelmed by their mother’s creativity and just wanted a proper Christmas tree such as other families had.
5) If you want a living tree, you need to set your sights small and choose a dwarf if you are intending to keep it alive for several years. Conifers have relatively large root systems and will not thrive on benign neglect when kept in a pot long term. However the very small growing varieties can be kept for many years with just the usual care that container plants require. They get more characterful with age, though not necessarily a whole lot larger.
6) At the risk of repeating myself from previous years, I offer up our two variations. Both use a handy, permanent, metal frame I was given. 
Garden lore: A Flower Fairy Christmas
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 