Columbine

Columbine
Aquilegia
(a-kwi-LEE-jee-uh)
Ranunculaceae (ra-nun-kew-LAY-see-ay)

I haven’t really done too much work with all the different Columbines, even though I am growing about a 1,000 of them this year. I haven’t bought any in a long time and I think they have been hybridizing amongst themselves. In one area I have a dark purple strain of Columbine that returns from seed each year. This white one was growing in the middle of all of the purples. It seems like a different type as it is much lower growing and has different foliage. As a matter of fact this is the only Columbine of this type in the whole garden. So naturally I had to take a picture of it. It was real sunny so I couldn’t get a good picture of the border. I am surprised that I didn’t blow out the whites on these pictures.



Here is a picture of the purple strain. I almost didn’t take this picture because I knew with the sun the camera would have a little trouble with the color. I just wanted to show how different the white one was.



I took my camera to work and didn’t even have time to shoot a picture. I planted the 3” caliper (about 12 feet) tall Kwanzan Cherry and the rest of the 24 Rhododendrons. We put the 5 tons of compost into the beds as backfill and a top dressing. I had some other topsoil so I mixed a bit of that to give the compost a little body. It looked like a good mixture but only time will tell if the plants like it. I went through and trimmed all the dead wood out and it is finally ready for mulch. After the bloom I am going to have to head back some of the bigger plants. They are simply getting too top heavy. I think I will lie back and take it easy today :lol: Actually mulching will be a breeze and then it is on to another area of the garden.