
Common Name: Columbine
Genus: Aquilegia
Species: vulgaris
Skill Level: Beginner
Exposure: Full sun, Partial shade
Hardiness: Hardy
Soil type: Well-drained/light, Clay/heavy, Moist
Height: 90cm
Spread: 45cm
Time to plant seeds: March to May
Time to divide plants: March to May
Charming old-fashioned cottage garden flowers with bonnet-shaped flowers, often two-tone and with long graceful spurs. Flowering in early summer, aquilegias fill the seasonal gap between the last of the spring bulbs and the first of the summer flowers. Self-sown aquilegias look charming naturalised amongst shrubs and roses however the plants interbreed freely and seedlings are rarely much like the parents - deadhead by cutting flowered stems off close to ground level shortly after flowering, to prevent self-seeding, if you want to keep named strains true.