Like most perennials, this plant wants to be dormant in winter or in a period of stasis/no growth. While you may be able to artificially circumvent this natural biological process with gro-lites and indoor growing, it is not in the plant's best interest to do so :-) I would wait until spring before attempting propagation by division with a new plant and might even wait longer (like a full growing season )before considering division with a small start.

FWIW, the $12.95 tag for what is essentially a 4" pot of this plant as offered by Bluestone is IMO a ridiculous price. 4" perennial starts go for $3.98 each here from retail nurseries (with a discount for volume purchases) and are widely available early season for a vast range of popular perennials. I would look again in spring when fresh stock comes in for a much better deal.

Well it was a good idea in theory! Thanks for letting me know about the dormancy. I went to my local nursery again yesterday, and they had a 1 gallon pot for 12.00. I bought 2 or 3 of them throughout the summer. I've been attempting to grow them the throughout the summer. Just now, as the fall gets closer, they have started to get bigger. Several have died, but hopefully the others will hang on. I've read it's a great plant for beginner gardeners, but I haven't been doing that well with it!

first link at link ... propagation by basal cuttings ... so there you go ... lol ..

ken

https://www.google.com/search?q=Campanula+Birch+Hybrid&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Campanula+Birch+Hybrid+propagation

ps: never cover your your garden in one of anything .... one little problem comes along... and you can lose it all ...

perhaps you could let them go dormant.. and bring them indoors in later winter to take the basal cuttings ... presuming you have and can perfect light.. humidity .. perhaps misting ... air movement.. etc ...

and if you arent getting the hint.. it might cost you a couple hundred in supplies and technology to start up the program.. making the 12 bucks sound great.. lol ...

you should spend some time searching the web.. and see if you can find any bulk RETAIL suppliers of flats of 24 or 48 ... for mail order ... in spring ...

do you have any experience with indoor gardening under lights????

ken

I suppose it's less money to just buy them! I was going to attempt indoor gardening with grow lights this winter. But was only planning on doing it for the succulent pot i have outdoors right now. But I'm definitely interested in growing more plants indoors. I found a great site showing all the procedures of how to build a setup. But I may just start very small to see how successful I can be.

Let me just say that it is far easier to grow tropical or non-hardy plants indoors than it is to attempt to grow fully hardy, temperate-climate plants indoors. Indoor conditions simply do not suit temperate-climate plants - too warm, too dry, too little light (usually) and no ability for them to undergo necessary vernalization/dormancy.

Note: "growing" is a far different process than sowing seed :-)

If you want lots of this all over the garden have you considered just going for the species C portenschlagiana from seed?

They don't really go dormant in the sense of dying right back to the ground. More a period of minimal growth as GG explained. In my climate they remain evergreen all winter and occasionally put out a flower in mild spells. But they'd be a terrible choice for trying to grow indoors given their high light and low temperature requirements.

Lots of you have seen this picture before but this is self sown C portenschlagiana. I can't see a huge difference to Birch Hybrid myself.

Floral, Here it does die completely back to the ground, and may also in zone 6 depending on conditions since zone 6 can get down to -10 F. Your conditions are quite balmy compared to a New England winter, though I don't know where in zone 6 the OP is. I love that photo, and will enjoy it every time you post it!

I for one have never seen this pic before and think it is just lovely. I would never tire of seeing it! Such a good idea for the OP.