Common Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) How to Grow and Care
The common columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) seems to be a low-maintenance perennial that provides interest throughout the year. It has lovely dark green leaves that become maroon-colored in the fall and flowers in a range of colors in the spring. Hummingbirds love the bell-shaped blossoms, and they could also be used in cut-flower bouquets.
In this article, I try to explain how to should grow and care for your common columbine flowers. Especially caring for any flowers is too important. They can feel everything.
Types of Common Columbine
- Aquilegia flabellata ‘Nana’ would be a miniature cultivar having light blue and white bicolored flowers that grow to around six to nine inches tall.
- Crimson red and white bi-colored blooms with long spurs; 24 to 30 inches tall. Aquilegia ‘Crimson Star’: Crimson red and white bi-colored blooms with long spurs; 24 to 30 inches tall.
- Aquilegia ‘McKana Hybrid’ features bi-colored blooms with long spurs in blue and white, red and yellow, and pink and purple combos; plants grow up to 30 inches tall.
- Aquilegia caerulea (Blue Aquilegia): The Rocky Mountain common columbine features fern-like grayish-green foliage, enormous white flowers with violet-blue sepals and yellow stamens, and can grow up to 24 inches tall.
- Long-blooming Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Clementine Salmon-Rose’ has salmon-colored, upward-facing flowers that mimic the buds of a double-flowered clematis, 14 to 16 inches tall.
How to Grow Common Columbines (Aquilegia vulgaris)
Common Columbine is best to grow via propagating from collected seeds. Harvest the ripened seed pods left inside after the blossoms have faded and dried out, and break them open to gather the lustrous black seeds. During the winter, keep them refrigerated. They require three to four weeks of cold exposure before germinating, ensuring that they are ready to plant when the time comes. The following spring, plant them in the garden. You can also allow your common columbines to self-seed by avoiding deadheading wasted blooms.
If you’re starting the seeds inside, place one to two columbine seeds on top of the soil mix and lightly cover them with extra dirt. Place them in a bright area. In three to four weeks, the seeds will emerge. Harden the plants off gradually after they achieve three to four inches in height, then grow them outdoors about ten inches apart.
How to Care for Common Columbine Plant
Following Aquilegia vulgaris growing crops, keep the plants wet until they are well established. Then just weekly watering will be required, except for prolonged droughts, which would also necessitate additional watering. Apply a water-soluble fertilizer once a month.
Fertilizing regularly will result in brighter blooms and fuller foliage. Deadheading could also be done regularly to encourage more blooming. If self-seeding becomes a problem, trim back both the leaves and the surviving seedpods in the fall. While some people prefer not to allow them to self-sow, it is frequently recommended because common columbine plants have a short lifespan of three to four years on average. These flowers could also be divided every few years if desired.
Leaf miners could be a problem for Aquilegia vulgaris on occasion, even though it doesn’t have any difficulties. Controlling these pests with neem oil seems to be a good way to proceed. Cutting Aquilegia vulgaris plants back to the basal leaves shortly after blooming could often assist in relieving insect pest problems. You might even receive a second round of stem development within a few weeks, allowing you to enjoy another round of blooms.
Conclusion
I hope this article helps you when you care for your flowers. I’m sure that if you read again which I wrote your columbine can easily grow and become beautiful flowers. It is not difficult to care for columbine plants.