Aquilegia vulgaris

columbine

approx 100 seeds £2.99 Buy
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  • Position: full sun or partial shade
  • Soil: fertile, moist, well-drained soil
  • Rate of growth: average
  • Flowering period: May to June
  • Flower colour: violet-blue
  • Hardiness: fully hardy

    Charming bonnet-like flowers with hooked spurs, nod gracefully from the branching, upright stems in late spring and early summer. The lush green foliage is ferny and forms pretty mounds that add a light texture to the planting scheme. These charming columbines are easy to grow and are useful for herbaceous borders and cottage gardens as well as more naturalised planting schemes including prairies. They will usually self-seed freely, but they are quite promiscuous plants that hybridise freely. Therefore if there are other aquilegias in your garden, it is possible that the next generation of plants will vary from their parent plants.

  • Garden care: In autumn, surface-sow on moist compost in small pots or seed trays and keep them in a greenhouse or cold frame at 15 to 20°C. Germination can be slow (up to 3 months) but seedlings should be thinned out as they grow on and over-wintered under glass before planting out after hardening off in spring. Alternatively, spring sowing can be undertaken as before, often without the need for heat.

  • Sow: March - June or September - October

  • Flowering: May - June

  • Approximate quantity: 100 seeds

Erysimum 'Bowles's Mauve'

wallflower

Stunning mauve flowers

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Lamprocapnos spectabilis

bleeding heart (syn. Dicentra spectabilis)

Arching sprays of pink, heart-shaped flowers

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Vinca difformis

periwinkle

Perfect for underplanting in shady spots

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Centaurea 'Jordy'

knapweed

Intense, near-black flowers

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