Aquilegia Granny’s Bonnets Mix - Columbine seeds

Aquilegia 'Granny’s Bonnets Mix' is a wonderful collection that produces charming, frilly, soft-coloured blooms made up of masses of fine, pointed petals. The nodding, fully double flowers flourish in varying shades of blue, pink, purple and white. Very hardy and easy to grow, this undemanding perennial self-seeds happily – perfect for informal rock gardens and shady borders.

Aquilegia, commonly known as Columbine or Granny’s Bonnet, belongs to the Buttercup or Ranunculaceae family. 'Granny’s Bonnets Mix' is a collection of double-flowered cultivars selected from Aquilegia vulgaris plena. Columbines occur naturally in open woodlands, clearings, meadows, rocky slopes and roadside banks of North America, Europe and temperate Asia. 'Granny’s Bonnets Mix' forms upright, bushy clumps that grow to a height of 60-80 cm in full bloom, for a width of about 30 cm. From May to June, charming fully double flowers emerge at the tip of long, branched stems. The nodding, spurless corollas range in colour from blue to pink, purple and white. The deciduous bluish-green to dark green leaves have a lacy, delicate, clover-like appearance. Aquilegias are short-lived perennials; flowering generally reaches its peak after 2 or 3 years of cultivation. Although they self-seed easily, they are not always true to type when different varieties of columbine are grown in close proximity.

Columbines have been popular ornamental garden plants since the Middle Ages. They will fit in just about anywhere, bringing a discreet lightness and fantasy to mixed borders and perennial beds; they are ideal for underplanting shrubs and trees, growing up slopes or decorating shady rock gardens. They are excellent cut flowers. In old-fashioned cottage style gardens, columbines combine well with perennials such as foxgloves, bellflowers, wood cranesbill, bleeding hearts or lady’s mantle.