Aquilegia

Late May / early June is the prime time of year for Aquilegias. Judging by the blogs I read, everyone has them. They must be amongst the most popular garden flowers. I think one of the reasons for this is that they are very undemanding about site and soil. They seem to be able to grow just about anywhere. Along the side of my property there is a very narrow (6" / 15cm) strip of very poor soil at the base of a fence, and several Aquilegias are growing there quite happily:

As you know, Aquilegias hybridise very readily and you never know from one year to the next what color their flowers will be or what form they will take. I'm sure this is part of their attraction. This year one of those that has come up by the fence is almost white, which I have never had before.

It's not pure white, it has a slight pink tinge, so I think one of its parents is probably the very common pink one that pops everywhere.

The yellow-and red ones have produced some strange shapes this year:

And some different colours too. This one is almost gold.


Unfortunately, Aquilegia seeds have got into my home-made compost. I was recently weeding the raised bed in which my Carrots are growing, and it was absolutely full of little Aquilegia plants. The ability of a plant to self-propagate readily is not always a desirable feature!