This plant is terrible. It takes over and chokes out other plants. I even have it coming up on my lawn. Beware!!!

I have been trying to eradicate this weed from my garden for about 10 years. I have taken to digging deep in the soil when I find one, and removing the large root. Roundup seems to have no effect whatsoever. I have fewer of them now, but have to stay vigilant to keep them from taking over!

Very good description of this beautiful but very hard to eradicate "wildflower". Thanks for posting this info.

These are great descriptions and pictures. Could there be a link included to a website that describes methods for control and eradication? I would imagine that there are members of MNPS that would have at least a couple great sites.

While the DNR and MN Dept of Ag have some info about control for some species, Creeping Bellflower isn't on their lists and I am not aware of anyone with the NPS (local or national) that covers the subject either.

If you come across a good site I would be very interested, though! In the meantime, if you have some that needs eradication your best bet is probably through your local Soil and Water Conservation District. See the invasive species page for more info.

The way I have been killing them is by digging deep to get rid of the tubers. These plants are tricky -- the tubers are connected to the surface by thin, fragile roots, so it's easy to pull up and think you've gotten it, without affecting the taproot at all. I've found that it's necessary to dig very slowly and gently, with a dandelion puller, to remove the roots intact and be certain I've found all the tubers.

link to eradication info via UofM extension

This "pretty" plant is quickly taking over where we have been working hard to control buckthorn in an area along Minnehaha Creek. Our buckthorn managed area has been overrun with this creeping bellflower, burdock, dame's rocket, curled dock and a host of other invasives-it's very disheartening :(

Having the same experience as Debbie in St. Louis Park. Cleared an area of buckthorn on Lake Minnetonka and Creeping Bellflower is moving in. It's by no means taken over and has much to compete with as the area has been led to grow natural. Is there any reason I should be concerned?

I made the mistake of encouraging this beautiful weed next to my cabin. Now it's coming up in my steep slope lakeshore restoration and I can't reach it!

I bought a plant from a nursery nearby that looks just like this. That was 5 years ago and it is very much taking over my garden. My father-in-law told me it was invasive but I ignored him. Same as the other comments, the roots are impossible to dig all out. Thanks for the info!!

2 of these plants appeared in our yard this year. I will try to remove them immediately! Thanks for your wonderful website!

As Judy's 2009 post says, this plant is terrible. It is growing along alleys, in boulevards, and alongside houses all over the city. To get rid of it, you must carefully use a pitchfork to loosen the soil, a small dandelion tool and your fingertips to find where the root is, and get out all the root. Then I think really you should burn it. I have put it into the trash, rather than into the garden recycling system.

Don't confuse it with the other campanulas - there is a native campanula - Campanula Rotundiflora - which has the same purple flower, but a tiny plant, feathery leaves, and only a few flowers per plant. It's found in Northern Minnesota along Lake Superior. I am growing some in my front yard (while battling the neighbor's rapunculoides non-stop). Nothing will out-compete campanula rapunculoides. If you do nothing else, cut it down before it flowers.

Aha! Finally, a creeping bellflower support group. I thought I had carefully dug up a thick patch of this stuff a few years ago when we moved into our house in St. Paul. It grew back year after year, through all the other perennials I'd planted, despite trying to stay on top of weeding. I've given up and plan to smother the bed with wet newspaper mulch and compost. Advice: make sure the roots of this plant are completely gone before you replant a weed patch.

This plant is turning into my personal nemesis. We bought a house two years ago that already had a very well established periwinkle bed in the front and this sneaky scourge is slowly taking over all of it. My neighbors are having the same issue. It's in beds, lawns, it even seems to grow in dirt. My biggest problem is that I can't dig in the bed, besides there is so much of it in other parts of the property, I would be busy for weeks if I tried to dig each pant up with the roots. We tried Roundup (once, because I strongly dislike it) to little avail. So I keep pulling and mulching (where applicable) in the hope that I'll exhaust it.

This plant is steadily marching up our street via boulevard flower beds, it crawls along the sidewalks and old retaining walls and is now invading our lawn in big patches. My neighbors seem to be clueless. It is a pretty flower in bloom, but looks scraggly when it goes to seed, and if you are a gardener you won't enjoy it once you realize how pesky it is. I have tried to deadhead any flower stalks before they set seed, the seed pods can form quite low on the stalk so it needs to be cut at the ground, and the stalk can regrow and form more flowers, so you still have to go back and make sure there are no additional flowers/seed pods forming. I bag the stalks and roots and send them out in the trash. Do not compost any part of this plant! I have dug it out of a contained boulevard bed/rock garden that was surrounded by concrete walkways (how did it get there?) and thoroughly dug and sifted the soil, kept that area bare for 2 seasons and still it comes back, probably from small root pieces I missed- lots of fine roots plus fleshy storage roots 6 or more inches deep. The roots grow under and around rocks. I will wait to replant that bed with perennials until I am sure there is no more. I think it might make it even harder to control by trying to dig it all out, and the roots just travel under mulch. I prefer to not use chemicals in my garden or lawn, but I am now experimenting with Roundup in selective non lawn areas, and Fertilome Weed Free Zone (has dicamba) in lawn areas. I have read that it is resistant to 2,4-D. So far I'm finding it will take multiple applications, and treatment timing is very important. This spring I am also finding it appearing in other parts of our property in isolated spots, so it may also be spread by animals, birds, lawnmower, even found some growing in last fall's leaf compost pile, so I'm wondering if bits of the stem or leaves can also sprout. It can sneak in unnoticed and without invitation. It has even jumped across our driveway to the boulevard bed upstream from us! My aim is to create some sort of treatment "moat" so it will have trouble getting across to the rest of our gardens and lawn. Will keep looking for it, and experimenting with what works best to get rid of it before it gets into my wildflower and perennial borders. From what I've seen so far it's going to be very tough to control.

I just noticed these pretty purple flowers blooming in my hedge a few days ago. I have never noticed these on our property before. It took me a while to find this site & I'm so glad I did because I was going to dig them up & move them to my perennial garden--what a disaster that would have been!!! Thank you everyone for all the good advice on how to eradicate these weeds. I'm planning on carefully digging them out today.

I hate this plant it is taking over my yard! I have been fighting it for years and am loosing, now my sister-in-law has planted one at my parents house! I am not happy! I found this link and will be trying to kill it with these chemical suggestions. I have my fingers crossed. :o(

http://www.invasiveplants.ab.ca/Downloads/FS-CreepingBellflower.pdf
Chemical:1 Glyphosate is effective for spot applications; dicamba can be used for broadcast application such as lawns. Creeping bellflower is resistant to 2,4-D.

Shelly, the University of Wisconsin also has some good info on creeping bellflower control measures, as well as a number of other invasive species in our area. Good luck with your eradication!

Lately in my yard this plant has been losing ground, especially in sunny areas, to some kind of orange fungus and to native blue violets. I don't know whether this is also partly due to drought or what, but I'm planning on spreading the fungus and violets to every part of our yard that is infested with the bellflowers. The violets form thick matts that seem to choke out bellflowers. If you have this see if you can get native blue violets to compete with it.