The Monterey Garden Club

COLUMBINE (Aquilegia spp)

Columbines commonly do not live more than three seasons in the garden; you can keep a batch of new plants coming along from seed to replace any that succumb either to stem borers ( the number one enemy of columbines) or to winter.

• BLOOM: April - May
• HEIGHT: 1 AND ½ to 3 feet
• COLORS: red and yellow, purple, pink, yellow, white and blue
• NEEDS: partial shade to full sun
• PROPAGATING:

While you can buy started plants, the columbines are easy to raise from seed. And the seeds open the door to a wider world of columbine beauty. They are lovelier in groups of 3, 5 or more, and a $1.50 packet of seeds will grow at least $15.00 worth of plants. The seeds are shiny and black and not too small.

April is the month to sow them; indoors is the place to start. Chill the seeds in your refrigerator for 5 days. Get a couple of 8 inch bulb pots (shorter and broader based than ordinary flowerpots) and fill them with a light, porous medium and two packs of the seeds. Don’t cover the seeds, but press them lightly into the soil.

Space the 15 or so seeds several inches apart - this will allow you to keep every seedling that sprouts. Water the pots from beneath and drape a piece of clear plastic or a pane of glass over them. Set the pots in a warm place - but not in full sun.   In several weeks, when the green appear, remove the plastic or glass and set the pots in a very sunny window. Keep the seedlings moist but not sodden as they grow.

When the seedlings have sent up 5 or 6 small ferny leaves, it’s time for the move outdoors. Choose an overcast day (and if that is followed by cloudy days with showers, that’s all to the good! Lift the seedlings carefully out of the pots - you can use an ordinary dinner fork or a spoon as the tool for the job. Set the plants firmly - a foot apart - in the friable earth in the nursery bed or in a sheltered cold frame fitted with a slatted shade. Some artificial shade is a help for a few days. Once they take hold, they will shoot up over the summer. Fertilizer will  fatten the clumps, of course.

 In early September, lift them with as many roots intact as possible; set them out in their permanent places. If possible, dig an over sized transplanting hole and stir in a spadeful of crumbly manure or compost.

Lower in the columbine and backfill with earth around the roots. Water generously to settle them in. (They suffer in dry weather.) A leaf or straw mulch is useful.