The balloon flower, or Chinese bellflower (platycodon grandiflorus), is a late-blooming perennial admired for its color and shape. The flower is blue, and as the bud opens, it inflates into the shape of a balloon until it reveals bell-shaped flowers upon opening. It blooms in July and August.
Well, that’s the way the website describes them. And yet… here it is mid-June, and ours are already blooming.