Campanula medium - Canterbury Bells

A biennial member of the bellflower family, Canterbury Bells spend their first year in quiet preparation, storing energy in a rosette of leaves. In their second year, they rise on sturdy stems, holding clusters of cup-shaped flowers in shades of blue, pink, white, or purple. Blooming from late spring into midsummer, their presence is brief yet unmistakable, often linked to meanings of gratitude and constancy in traditional flower language.

In this photograph, the bells are in full voice — each cup open and still, as though mid-song. The stem rises cleanly against a plain backdrop, allowing every curve of the petals to hold the viewer’s attention. Light grazes their edges, softening the form without diminishing its clarity.

This is the plant’s singular moment of abundance, the brief second year before it dies back. A quiet testament to beauty that is inseparable from transience — that what we witness now is already slipping into memory.