Columbine Flowers

by Doug
(Somewhere in his garden)

Columbine flowers have long been one of my favorite plants and when I had my nursery, I had all manner of collector species scattered here and there throughout the gardens. I wasn’t overly tempted by the bigger blowsy hybrids but loved the simplicity of the species.

The Latin name for columbine is Aquilegia and this comes from the Latin word aquila meaning ‘eagle’ and if you look at the individual petals, you can see the resemblance to an eagle. Yes, you have to use your imagination.

Columbine is the other name for this plant and this comes to us because the upside-down flowers resemble a circle of drinking doves. Columba is Latin for ‘dove”. I’ve also heard Aquilegia called Culverwort but that’s easily explained because the Saxon word for ‘pigeon’ is culfre and ‘plant’ is wort. So you have a “pigeon-plant” in Saxon.

Whatever you call them, they’re worth a special place in your garden. Simply understand they are relatively short-lived (2-3 years) and will self-sow and cross-breed like crazy. This is one promiscuous plant.

Easily hardy to USDA 4 (and colder) they bloom in early summer for about a month. Break open the seedpods and simply scatter the seeds wherever you want new plants (or just wait, they’ll move around the garden finding places they like to grow and dying out in others) Don’t bother going to the trouble of actually starting these seeds indoors - they’re an easy outdoor self-sowing plant.

For more info on how to grow columbine flowers, you might want to check out the growing and variety page here.