Aquilegia Sweet Rainbows- Columbine Seeds

Aquilegia 'Sweet Rainbows' is a wonderful collection that brings together single and double-flowering varieties in a symphony of soft, melancholic colours. The pink, cream, deep purple, lilac, light and dark blue blooms are often two-toned and intensely fragrant. 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. 'Sweet Rainbows' is a collection of cultivars selected from several different species, including Aquilegia vulgaris (or clematiflora) and A. fragrans. Columbines occur naturally in open woodlands, clearings, meadows, rocky slopes and roadside banks of North America, Europe and temperate Asia. The cultivars in this collection all form upright, bushy clumps that grow to a height of 30-45 cm, for a width of about 30 cm. From May to June, single or double blooms with long spurs emerge at the tip of long, branched stems. They are bicoloured, in a variety of soft shades, and have an intense honeysuckle-like fragrance. 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.