Columbine (Aquilegia) - My colorful mix - Seeds - The Queen of the Cottage Garden

My colorful special blend (lucky dip for beds & woodland edges)

Scope of delivery: 30/100 seeds each.

Bring a piece of romantic cottage garden home! These seeds come from my own colorful mix of the plants shown in the photos.

What's special about these seeds: The plants that emerge from these seeds can look completely different due to cross-pollination. For me, no two plants are alike. Specific color requests are not possible due to the mix – but with every seed, you get an absolute unique specimen that cannot be bought in any garden center!

Growth & Appearance

• Lifespan: Perennial, absolutely winter-hardy.

• Growth height: Depending on cross-pollination, usually between 40 and 80 cm.

• Habit: Very graceful and loosely structured. The stems are thin, the blue-green foliage delicate and almost fern-like.

• Flower: From May to July, the fascinating, bell-shaped flowers with their distinctive spurs float gracefully above the foliage.

Origin Various wild species of columbine can be found almost all over the Northern Hemisphere in temperate zones, often at the edges of sparse forests or in mountainous regions. It has been an absolute classic in our cottage gardens for centuries.

Ingredients (IMPORTANT NOTE) Columbines belong to the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae). All parts of the plant (especially the seeds) are toxic and contain, among other things, the alkaloid magnoflorine and cyanogenic glycosides. The plant is therefore purely ornamental and absolutely not suitable for consumption! The plant sap can also cause irritation on sensitive skin.

Use

• In the garden: An indispensable plant for semi-shady beds, woodland edges, or romantic natural gardens.

• For insects: The flowers with their long nectar spurs are an absolute delicacy for long-tongued bumblebees and butterflies.

• As a cut flower: Also excellent and very delicate in spring and early summer bouquets.

Historical In medieval and Renaissance art, the columbine was a highly symbolic plant. Due to its flower shape, which with a little imagination resembles a swarm of small doves, it was considered a symbol of the Holy Spirit (hence its English name Columbine, derived from columba = dove).

Curiosities Columbines are extremely promiscuous in the garden! If you have different colors and forms in your garden, they cheerfully cross-pollinate with each other. They also like to "wander": they self-sow and suddenly appear the next year in parts of the garden where you didn't plant them. This very characteristic ensures the wonderful, surprising color plays of your seed mix!

Location, Care & Other Important Things

• Location: Preferably partial shade. Intense midday sun is usually not well tolerated in the long run.

• Soil: Humus-rich, loose, and moderately moist. No waterlogging.

• Care: Absolutely low-maintenance. If you want to prevent uncontrolled self-seeding in your own garden, you should cut off the withered flower stalks in good time before the seeds ripen.

Sowing instructions: Columbine (Aquilegia)

Columbines are so-called cold germinators. They have a built-in protective mechanism from nature so that they do not germinate in the warm autumn and then freeze in winter.

When and how to sow?

• The cold period: The seeds must be stratified before germination. This means they need winter (and its cold stimuli) before they germinate.

• The best time: Ideally, you should sow the seeds in situ outdoors before November.

• Sowing depth (light germinators): Columbines germinate better with light. So, only scatter the seeds on the raked, weed-free soil and cover them with a maximum of a very thin layer of sand or soil (or just press them down) so that they don't blow away.

• Germination: Nature does the rest! In spring, when the days get warmer, the seeds will start to germinate in their place.