LITFM - Columbines

Season Five, Episode 00217

Botanical Latin Name: Aquilegia caerulea ‘Biedermeir Mix’

Similarly to last week’s video it has taken a surprisingly long time to get around to putting Columbines in a video. This more or less has to do with my own missteps in trying to grow varieties that don’t handle Carolina summer heat well from seed and navigating the issues with our native soil. As they say better late than never and here we are talking about The Colorado Blue Columbine. Columbines are in the Buttercup Family and in this particular case are native to North America. They bloom from late spring through summer and you can maximize the bloom time by pruning away the spent blooms preventing seed formation. However the little clawed seed capsules are interesting to look at. In the case of the Biedermeier mix the plant has been bred to have an almost double-flower in colors that go far beyond blue. The blue-green foliage is also something that is worth considering since it adds an extra dimension to having this plant in your garden.


This week there are some links with extra information:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/b...



LITFM Garden Life is intended as a series of videos highlighting a specific plant/family in the Botanical Testing Gardens. The Gardens are located in North Carolina (Zone 8a). Hopefully this video gives you some good garden ideas and if you have questions or comments let me know.

The Blog is here: http://bl2-litfm.blogspot.com/