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 0^o, except as noted.

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.