| Where the garden meets the wild | ||||
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AQUILEGIA, PARAQUILEGIA, SEMIAQUILEGIA COLUMBINE & ITS COUSINS Ranunculaceae (Buttercup family) |
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Most columbines and their cousins bloom in late spring and early summer, when their airiness and hummingbird attendants are delightful. Paraquilegia and Semiaquilegia can be diffident self-sowers. The true columbines, or Aquilegia, must be deadheaded ~ not a big job ~ because they interbreed and self-sow promiscuously. We sow only wild or hand-pollinated seeds to make sure you get the species you've ordered. |
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| Aquilegia buergeriana
Miquel, purple-blue
form.
ヤマオダマキ
Yama-odamaki (Japanese). This is the typical form of
this Japanese species, with blue-purple wings and a cream-yellow bell. We
offer plants ready to bloom next spring. They are grown from seeds
received from the Alpine Garden Society of Tokyo.
Pot ( 10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$6.00; elsewhere US$5.50 |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Aquilegia buergeriana
Miquel, yellow-green
form. ヤマオダマキ
黄色花系,
Yama-odamaki
(Japanese). This is a less common form of the
normally blue-purple Japanese species. Our plants are from seeds received from the Alpine Garden Society of
Tokyo. They are uniform, not a strain. Their dark green stems and leaves
are faintly fuzzy; their elegant flowers, greyed yellow-green and cream,
open in late June on 24-cm (10") stems and last 2-3 weeks. Zone 6.
Pot (deep 10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$6.00; elsewhere US$5.50 |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Aquilegia caerulea
E. James. Rocky Mountain columbine. Colorado columbine. Sky-blue
and white flowers with long spurs bloom on 40-60 cm (16-25") stems in
May-June. Native to the Rocky Mountains, from Montana to Arizona. Our plants
are from seeds
collected wild at several sites in Colorado. They are not fussy about
soil. Sun to part shade. Zone 3. Award of
Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural Society) 1994.
Pot (10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$7.00; elsewhere US$6.50. |
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Photograph © Magnar Aspakar |
Aquilegia ecalcarata Maximowicz. 无距耧斗菜 Wu ju lou dou cai (Chinese). Small, spurless, Burgundy-red to purple flowers bloom in May-June on 20-60 cm (8-24") stems. This charmer is the one true Aquilegia that lacks petal spurs; it has sometimes been called Semiaquilegia ecalcarata. Native to open forest and scrub slopes in central China and Xizang (Tibet). Our seeds are from the Vaevankallion Arboretum in Finland. Zone 6. Pot (10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$7.00; elsewhere US$6.50. |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Aquilegia flabellata var. pumila
(Huth) Kudo.
ヤマオダマキ,
Miyama-odamaki
(Japanese). This
rock-garden beauty is native to Japan. Our plants are from garden seed; they
breed true, perhaps because this is the earliest columbine to bloom here,
opening its first flowers in April and continuing alone for several weeks.
Height about 15 cm (6"). Zone 3. Award
of Garden Merit (Royal Horticultural Society) 1993.
Pot (10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$7.00; elsewhere US$6.50. |
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Photograph © Dorrie Woodward |
Aquilegia formosa
Fischer ex de Candolle. Western columbine. Sitka columbine. Flowers
with red, spurred sepals and yellow corollas bloom with us from May
through August. Please click on the photograph to see these hummingbird
magnets at our nursery. Native to open woods from Alaska to
California. Adapted to gritty, mineral soil; loves garden humus. Height
40-70 cm (16-28"). Zone 5.
Pot (15 cm. / 6"). In Canada, C$6.00; elsewhere US$5.50. |
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Photograph © Magnar Aspakar
Photograph © Paige Woodward |
Aquilegia jonesii Parry. Rock
columbine. Limestone columbine. First in many collectors' hearts, this
diminutive treasure is ideal for troughs. Sky-blue flowers with
short spurs bloom in June-July on 5-12 cm (2-5") stems above crowded,
grey-blue leaves. A. jonesii can be difficult but it grows well given
conditions that mimic its home in the wild. It is native to subalpine limestone
screes and outcrops in in the Rocky Mountains, from S Alberta to Wyoming,
where it is watered by spring thaw and the occasional summer thunderstorm.
Its roots require a cool crevice. Rainy winters are the commonest cause
of death; unless you have winter snowpack, grow it under shelter or in
open road mulch. Our
plants are from seeds collected wild in Wyoming and Montana. Zone 4. Pot (6 cm. / 2.5"). In Canada, C$8.00; elsewhere US$7.25. |
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Photograph from Rare Flowers and Unusual Trees. |
Aquilegia rockii Munz.直距耧斗菜
Zhi ju lou dou cai (Chinese). This beauty can be a late bloomer.
Large, short-spurred flowers with narrow, purple-blue petals and paler sepals open
in June to August. Height 20-60 cm (8-24"). Native to sparsely wooded
montane slopes in Yunnan, Sichuan and Xizang (Tibet). Our plants are from
seed collected
wild in Yunnan. Zone 6; possibly colder. Not available this season. |
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| Aquilegia
scopulorum
Pot ( 10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$8.00; elsewhere US$7.25. |
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Photograph © Pat Woodward |
Aquilegia sp. Seeds
of this beautiful plant with very long spurs on the petals were collected
by Sally Walker in the Baboquivari Mountains in Pima
County, Arizona. Aquilegias can vary to a label-defying degree. Bob Nold, the Colorado
plantsman who has written a book about the genus, is calling this
plant A. chrysantha pending further study. Alan Whittemore,
of the Missouri Botanical Garden, calls it A. longissima in his
treatment of Aquilegia for the Flora
of North America. Sally Walker thinks it is neither. Zone
6; possibly colder. Award of Garden Merit
(Royal Horticultural Society) 1998 (as A. longissima).
Not available this season. Patented yellow cultivars with long spurs, not quite as beautiful as this plant, have been flooding garden centers for several years. So connoisseurs don't want this treasure, fearing it is common. We will keep it out of circulation for a while. (In our opinion, even if this plant were common, which it is not, it would still be worth having ~ like love, a good vintage, the Goldberg Variations, democracy, yoghurt, the Internet, offline libraries and Paeonia rockii from Linyanshan.) |
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Photograph © |
Paraquilegia anemonoides (Willdenow)
Ulbricht. 乳突拟耧斗菜,
Ru tu ni lou dou cai (Chinese). White to mauvish
blue, spurless, cup-shaped flowers resembling Anemone and 2 cm
(1") across, bloom on 18-cm
(7") stems above dissected grey-green leaves. Native to alpine meadows and
crevices across the Himalayas and central and northern Asia. Our plants
descend from seeds collected wild in the Beima Shan range of Yunnan. Grows
best on tufa or in calcium-rich soil that is moist but well drained for
three seasons; likes a dry winter. Zone 5;
possibly colder. Not available this season. |
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Photograph © Sun Huang |
Paraquilegia
microphylla (Royle) J. R. Drummond & Hutchinson. 耧斗菜
Ni lou dou cai (Chinese).
Native to W. China and the Himalaya.
Pot (10 cm / 4"). In Canada, C$10.00; elsewhere US$9.00. |
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Photograph from Illustrated Medicinal Plants of China. |
Semiaquilegia adoxoides (de
Candolle)
Makino.
天葵属
Tian kui shu
(Chinese).
ヒメウズ Hime-izu
(Japanese). This is the
lone species in its genus. It is tuberous. The spurless flowers are white,
often tinged with purple; the leaves are blue-green. Native to China, Korea and Japan, where it grows in open woods and along
roadsides. Height 10-32 cm (4-12").
Not available this season. |
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| Semiaquilegia ecalcarata. Please see Aquilegia ecalcarata. To quote Bob Nold: "Aquilegia ecalcarata was its first name, and is its name now. It was considered to be a member of the artificial genus Semiaquilegia (which has only one sp., adoxoides) by some English botanists, but by no one else, except nurseries. Both taxonomists and geneticists agree that it's unquestionably an Aquilegia (it's interfertile with other spp. of Aquilegia, even in the wild)." | ||||
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| This page was updated Sept. 10, 2006 | ||||
