Plants in our Garden – Aquilegia

There are lots of varieties of Aquilegia (or granny’s bonnet) and I have three or four in my garden but my favourite is photographed here. Unfortunately I don’t know its full name.

Aquilegia live full sun but do well in partial shade too. They are fully hardy and flower during May and June, self seeding around the garden.

The flower colours vary from dark purple, through blue, pink and white and they all have delicate, pale green foliage.

They are easy to grow and need little care except to deadhead to help prolong flowering.

Keep an eye on children near this plant as the sap may cause skin irritation.

Buy your own Aquilegias from Crocus.co.uk

The photograph above is the property of Linda Peppin and must not be copied or used in any public work without her express permission.

Aquilegia

Question:

My question is about aquilegias, we have about a dozen and this year the plants seem healthy but the flower buds seem to dry up and not flower. Some have flowered but nearly all the plants are the same. Past years they have been fine, but this year poor show, any ideas please.

Answer:

It could be a couple of things. We have had a few weeks of warm/hot weather and it could be that at the vital time of bud development the plants dried. This would have caused the buds to drop before opening. Aquilegias like moist but well drained soil so you may want to keep an eye on that next year. Aquilegias are also sometimes short-lived so may need to be replaced every two to three years, they may just be getting to the end of their lives.