Columbines ensure a sea of flowers in the garden from May to June. We show what you should consider when buying columbines and where you can get them from.
As great as the variety of Columbine species (Aquilegia) is, there are of course even more varieties and hybrids. You can buy the perennials either as plants or as seeds, because their cultivation is extremely easy.
Buy Columbine
Actually, there are columbines like sand by the sea. If you're not too particular about a particular strain, you can simply ask your neighbor for some seeds. If you are looking for something special or single-variety columbines, it will be more difficult. When selecting the type, pay attention to their respective requirements. Especially with North American species, you should consider that your garden should meet the requirements of the columbine. This applies in particular to light conditions and winter hardiness.
Otherwise you are of course free to choose whether the flowers should be filled or unfilled, one color or two colors. The growth height is also very variable. Dwarf forms often do not get higher than 15 centimeters, while large species with a height of around 80 centimeters fit well into the perennial border.
Buying columbine seeds: you should pay attention to this
Because columbines are very closely related to each other, hybrids often occur between the different species and varieties. Even the breeders can often not rule this out one hundred percent. Because of this, it may happen that not all of your seedlings look the same. So if you want to grow single-variety columbines, you may need to discard young plants that don't match the appearance of the species or cultivar in question. On the other hand, it can of course be nice to have a little more variety.
Note: When collecting seeds from the wild, you should make sure that they are from certified collections, since columbines are unfortunately endangered in many places in the wild.
Buy columbine plants: Theyou should note
When buying a columbine plant, apart from the type and variety, the well-known important criteria apply: the plant should be he althy and vigorous, and for the sake of the environment, biological origin is advisable. Plants from organic farms are often more resistant anyway. Aside from the true Aquilegia species, there are their close relatives, the pseudocolumbine (Semiaquilegia) and the dwarf columbine (Paraquilegia ).
Recommended sources for columbines
Aquilegia are extremely popular and widespread among hobby gardeners. That's why they can be found on almost every plant exchange. Perhaps there will soon be such an event or a plant market in your area?
Otherwise you will find an unbelievable variety of seeds of various Columbine species on rareplant.eu. The company, originally founded in Germany, is now based in Tenerife and sells its seeds worldwide. All seeds come either from organic farming or from certified wild collections.
The perennial nursery Gaißmayer from Illertissen near Ulm sells the columbine as a plant. You can buy the plants either on site in Illertissen or in the online shop. Many of the plants come from our own organic cultivation, even if this is not declared online. Only purchased specimens from partner companies can also be conventional. If you are interested, just ask which plants are organic and which are conventional.
We have compiled further information on columbines for you here.