AQUILEGIA.
Columbine. Widespread, mostly in north-temperate regions. These are graceful,
long-lived perennials for moist spots in the garden. They make compact clumps
of seasonal shoots from a branched rootstock. Their usually long-stalked, fern-like
leaves, elegant by themselves, form a beautiful foil for branched clusters of
large, usually nodding blossoms in spring. Each flower has five colored, usually
spreading sepals and five inner petals whose base is drawn out into a nectar-bearing
spur. They are fine plants for butterflies and other insects, and the red-flowered
ones will draw hummingbirds from far and wide. I have had great fun selecting
and hybridizing among the new forms which continually pop up at the nursery;
may gardeners find them similarly enchanting. Winter deciduous. Sun or part
shade, reasonably well drained soil, constant moisture during active growth.
Those listed are hardy to below 0o,
except as noted.
caerulea. Rocky Mountain columbine. One of the classic columbines, treasured
for long-spurred flowers of lavender-blue and white.
‘Cathy’s Giant’. Sometimes the most interesting hybrids are those made
randomly by the birds and bees. This one was first discovered by Cathy
Moffat in one of our blocks of short-spurred, dark A. vulgaris hybrids.
It is a complete break from any of its possible parents. Not only is it
an exceptionally robust plant, but it produces broad sprays of huge (to
4"), wide-open, spurless flowers of the deepest purple short of black.
They look more like narrow-petalled clematis than columbines (though still quite
distinct from the older Clematiflora strain).
chrysantha. Golden columbine. Another Rocky Mountain native growing as
much as 4' tall, with light green leaves and upfacing golden, long-spurred
flowers.
Corralitos Hybrids. This is more an announcement than a description. As
anyone who has tried the black art of hybridizing will know, it quickly
becomes an obsession, something like drugs and gambling. My latest flight
of fancy has been to cross the tiny A. formosa nana, above, with some of
my other favorites. At the least, the results will include some interesting
dwarf plants with a good range of flower colors. You should find them entertaining,
and perhaps even beautiful. These will form the bases of future waves of
insanity.
‘Crimson Star’. A hybrid displaying spectacular long-spurred blossoms combining
crimson and white on relatively short (1½') stems.
‘Dark Dancer’. This is an impressive new strain, derived from earlier hybrids
of A. caerulea, above. It is a tall plant, like the A. vulgaris hybrids,
though with more slender stems and leaf stalks. This is one of the most
floriferous of the hybrid columbines, bearing dozens of long-spurred, deep
maroon to purple blossoms on each branched stem. Another new cross sharing
the same ancestry is ‘Midnight Cowgirl’, with 4" flowers, usually purple
without and white within.
formosa. Western columbine. A Western
native with bluish green, finely divided leaves and 2-3' stems of red and yellow
flowers. Ours are from exceptionally large flowered stock, originally encountered
along the Van Duzen River in northern California. 10oF
or less.
“formosa nana”.
This plant is misnamed and most likely an Asian species, though certainly one
of the best of the columbines. It was a gift many years ago from Peter Sugawara,
one of the great nurserymen of California. It is a tiny plant, usually 8"
or less in height, with much smaller leaves than typical A. formosa,
heavily tinged with purple. Small, dark red and yellow blossoms are carried
many to a branched 6-8" stem. Naturally it has been tempting to try it
as a hybrid parent, and some of the results have been gratifying, though typically
few viable seeds are set. A cross with the “real” formosa has
yielded plants of directly intermediate size (about 1’ high) and nearly
as floriferous as “nana” itself. Hybrids with other species are still
under observation but look quite promising.
sibirica. One of best of the smaller
columbines. It has slender stems, broad bright green leaves and many widely
spreading, short-spurred blossoms in purple to maroon shades, carried on 1’
stems. From our original stock I have also developed a hybrid strain dubbed
‘Pink Petticoats’.
Plants of this strain are taller (2’+) though similarly graceful, and extremely
floriferous. Their usual shades are flesh-pink to mauve.
vulgaris hybrids. European columbine. Vigorous and sturdy plants with blue-green
leaves and a wealth of double, short-spurred blossoms on 1½-3’ stems. A
more or less continual parade of interesting seed strains has come our
way. Most recent, from Bob Lilly, an old nursery friend in Washington,
have been ‘Clematiflora’ and ‘Adelaide Addison’. The first is distinguished
by wide-open, spurless flowers, usually single, which really do resemble
those of the hybrid clematis in miniature. We have concentrated on the
pink form. ‘Adelaide Addison’ has semidouble, short-spurred flowers, bright
bluish purple without and white within. I have also made a number of crosses
within this group and between it and other species, like A. sibirica. Reselections
are resulting in seed strains of nearly uniform colors. Some of our latest
introductions are ‘Midnight Madness’, with many large, spurless, blackish
purple flowers, ‘Maroon Madness’ (can you guess the color?) with similarly
formed flowers, ‘Rose Ballet’, with masses of rose pink blossoms, and ‘Northern
Lights’, with clouds of semidouble blue and white blossoms on shorter stems.
Aquilegia x Semiaquilegia. Intergeneric hybrids are relatively rare in
the plant world, though common in certain families like the orchids. A
few years ago seedlings which showed hybrid origin both in leaves and in
flower began to show up in flats of seeds we had collected from Semiaquilegia
ecalcarata (please see the entry for this beautiful perennial). It has
taken only a short time to produce commercial quantities of a second generation.
They may be quite variable (in fact, I would hope so, for the purposes
of further selection), but all should be beautiful. They have the delicate
leaf divisions and slender stems more reminiscent of the Semiaquilegia
parent. Their great quantities of flowers are shared by both parents. Flowers
are about an inch long, nearly twice the size of Semiaquilegia but considerably
smaller than Aquilegia sibirica, the most likely “father”. The petals have
the distinctive straight tips of Semiaquilegia but also small spurs. They
are held like those of Aquilegia. ‘Night Dancer’ is our first named strain.
It produces clouds of exquisite, deep purple to mauve flowers. More will
follow.
