Aquilegia spp. in bloom!

For the last week or so, columbines have been blooming all over the neighbourhood. My favourite, of course, is our native wild red columbine, Aquilegia canadensis. This is in a neighbour's garden; unfortunately I somehow managed to kill mine.

This huge beautiful plant was inherited from the previous owners. It didn't bloom last year, and I don't remember it doing much before that, so I was surprised to see how huge it is this year, and smothered with flowers! I think it is A. vulgaris 'Tower Dark Blue'. (A. vulgaris is native to Europe.)

Here's a closer look at one of the purple flowers.

I discovered this very pretty pale pink variety when I was exploring the neighbourhood.

The columbines are considered short-lived perennials, but they will at least in theory self seed. Columbines are considered fairly easy to grow so I'm not sure how I managed to kill mine. I guess I'd better not invest in any of the really delicate plants, like the Cypripediums (lady slippers) until I figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Aquilegia canadensis: seeds

Aquilegia canadensis (known in English as wild columbine, red columbine, or Canada columbine and in French as ancolie du Canada or gants de Notre-Dame is a short-lived herbaceous perennial native to southeastern Canada and northeastern United States. Like most columbines, its flowers have five long spurs. This is my favourite wildflower, in part because it is one of the few red flowers found in the Canadian wilderness.

Last year I planted a small columbine I bought at Toronto Botanical Garden. Unfortunately it turned out that the barrel I planted it in originally had insufficient drainage to cope with the freakishly heavy rainfall we had last year, and the columbine struggled until I moved it to the shady front yard. It never grew very large, and suffered from leaf-miners (a common problem with this plant, unfortunately). This year I am growing some more from seed, purchased from Wildflower Farm, an Ontario nursury specializing in native plants.

The seeds are black, shiny, and 1-2 mm long.

Aquilegia canadensis: flowers and seed pods

Aquilegia canadensis (known in English as wild columbine, red columbine, or Canada columbine and in French as ancolie du Canada or gants de Notre-Dame is a short-lived herbaceous perennial native to southeastern Canada and northeastern United States. Like most columbines, its flowers have five long spurs. This is my favourite wildflower, in part because it is one of the few red flowers found in the Canadian wilderness.

I photographed this pretty clump of wild columbine at Toronto Botanical Garden in late June. Columbine blooms in the spring so I was pleasantly surprised to see there were still some blooms left, as well as the brown seedpods.