scented campanulas

[Diane Whitehead]

I've just read that Campanula versicolor is clove-scented. Unfortunately my seeds were incorrectly named, and mine are really C primulifolia. (from the 2013 SRGC seedex)    I'll have to try again to grow versicolor.

I decided to look for more scented campanulas, and found one, Samantha, advertised as being scented.  It is lilac with a white centre.  I haven't been able to find what its parentage is.

Is anyone growing it, or any other scented ones?  I guess the only people who would know are the ones who carry potted plants in to shows.

[Diane Whitehead]

I've discovered another scented one - Royal Wave which is patented and sterile so won't set seed.  I wonder if it has pollen.

I found its patent interesting but a bit confusing.
 
  https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/51/cd/8e/b6e7f08d87df44/US20050283876P1.pdf

 First it is listed as  Campanula portenschlagiana.

But then it is described as being derived from Samantha.

" Royal Wave is a tetraploid of Campanula Samantha, an unpatented, sterile hybrid whose parents probably were C.pseudoraineri x. C.carpatica. The tetraploidy was induced under laboratory conditions using colchicine on Stage I plants in tissue culture. Subsequent offspring were trialed and Campanula Royal Wave was selected from these."

Lewis and Lynch consider C. pseudoraineri to be a hybrid of raineri x carpatica ssp turbinata, so  Samantha and Royal Wave have quite a complex parentage.  I wonder where the scent comes from?

[Gail]

I haven't grown C. versicolor but was just reading that "This species provides some of the nicest salad leaves that we have tried to date, it has an excellent potential as an edible ornamental in the garden". Sounds like a must-have!