Columbine, Aquilegia Columbines come in a wonderful range of lively colours. They bloom in late spring and early summer, and are ideal for cottage gardens as they freely self-seed. Plant them right at the front of a border where they can be easily seen.

In this article

Recommended varieties Growing tips

Problem solver Where to see them

Wild species

There's a wide range of wild species, which tend to provide the quieter, softer colours.

• A. bertolonii: a wild European plant, it has the characteristic, attractively divided foliage of all columbines and 30cm (12in) long stems carrying deep violet-purple blooms. It has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit (AGM).
• A. flabellata: a popular Japanese alpine variety, it has little blue flowers with rounded, creamy white centres. The related A. 'Nana Alba' is shorter but has proportionally larger white flowers. A. flabellata has been awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's AGM.
• A. vulgaris: granny's bonnet has mid-length to short spurs, often blue-grey ferny foliage and mainly blue, pink or white flowers that appear in May. A highly dependable British native producing scores of seedlings each year. The popular spurless form, var. stellata, comes in white, blue or pink. And 'Nora Barlow' is a perennial cottage garden favourite that's grown for its mix of pale green and pink pompom-like flowers.

Hybrids and cultivars

If you want brighter coloured columbines, go for the newer hybrids which keep appearing each year in the garden centres.

• A. 'Crimson Star': a large flowered bicoloured, in red and white, with attractive spurs. It can be grown from seed.
• A. McKana Group: relatively old-fashioned but still very popular, it has beautiful spurred varieties in a range of bicolours including blue and yellow, salmon and white, and pink and lemon.
• A. State Series: a small group of relatively recent introductions from the USA with some superb colours, especially 'Colorado' (purple and white) and 'Kansas' (red and gold). The best of the equally attractive American Songbird Series includes 'Redwing' (deep red and white) and 'Blue Jay' (blue and white).

Growing plants from seed

You don't need to grow new plants from seed because they do it for you. Just dig up the seedlings in the spring, and move them to where they're required. To avoid dozens of unwanted plants, promptly remove the flowers once they start fading. Any undesirable seedlings, for example those with muddy colours or misshapen blooms, should be thrown out. Alternatively - and this is a good way of making sure you keep your cultivars pure - tease out and remove a few shoots in the spring, each with a section of root, and then pot it up.

Watch Carol Klein's video on the best method of collecting aquilegia seed.

Site and soil preferences

Most prefer moist soil in dappled sun. If growing the alpine kind (for example the blue A. alpina) make sure it has excellent drainage.

Planting associations

Try growing mainly blue forms of A. vulgaris among trees and shrubs, in cleared soil in a wild garden. Elsewhere, they provide a good follow-up after the tulips have finished. They also help to hide the ugly dying bulb foliage with their flowers and leaves.

The brighter hybrids, including the McKana Group or modern 'Crimson Star', look good in mixed borders for an early summer display.

The smaller species are ideal for raised beds or rock gardens where their colours and exquisitely shaped flowers are clearly visible.

Aftercare

Feeding is unnecessary unless the soil's exceptionally poor. Columbines don't need staking, but an overfed plant will flop.

Columbines suffer from few problems. Mildew might be troublesome, particularly during dry years, as might sawfly and leaf miners. However, they're seldom life-threatening, especially if the plants are in reasonably moist soil and growing vigorously. If the leaves have been badly affected by the likes of sawfly, cut them back hard to ground level immediately after flowering. This encourages a new burst of foliage.

National Collection of Columbines

J Drake
Hardwicke House
Fen Ditton
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire, CB5 8TF
Tel: 01223 292246
Opening times: By appointment only

C Thomas
Touchwood
4 Clyne Valley Cottages
Killray
Swansea SA2 7DU
Tel: 01792 522 443
Website: www.touchwoodplants.co.uk
Opening times: By appointment only