How to Grow and Care for Columbine

Columbine is a short-lived herbaceous perennial with airy foliage and colorful blooms said to resemble jester's caps. Columbine grows best in full sun in cooler conditions but the plant will not tolerate excessive heat and begins to decline in the summer. The plant prefers soil with medium moisture but well-drained. Columbine is toxic to humans.

Columbine Care

Here are the main care requirements for growing columbine.

• Plant in partial shade or full sun only in cooler regions.
• Place columbine in the early spring in humusy, well-drained soil, and avoid clay.
• Keep the soil consistently moist (not soggy) for young plants and water once a week when they are established.
• Fertilize plants once a month during the growing season.
  

Light

It's recommended to grow columbine in partial shade. These plants do not tolerate hot, full sun well. However, the plants tolerate full sun in cooler climates and during cool spring days. Columbine appreciates some shade in summer's heat after flowering and while re-building their stores of energy.

Soil

Grow columbine plants in well-drained humusy soil with a neutral to slightly acidic pH. Mix some compost into the soil before planting to provide them with rich organic material. They prefer sandy or loamy soil over clay because good drainage is key.

Water

Columbine requires moderate soil moisture, so apply water when the top 1 to 2 inches of soil dries out. As young plants are becoming established, keep the soil evenly moist but never soggy. Established plants only need watering about once a week and they become drought-tolerant perennials. Mulch the plants to conserve water in the summer and keep the roots cool.

Temperature and Humidity

Columbines are perennial in USDA hardiness zones 3 to 8, but choose a variety that's well-suited for your specific climate. The plants flower best in cooler temperatures but not in excessive heat.

Columbine is sensitive to high temperatures, and cooler weather will produce more flowers. Hot temperatures will cause the plant to go dormant in the summer.

Fertilizer

Use a liquid, water-soluble fertilizer once a month during the growing season (spring to fall) to promote healthy foliage and better, brighter blooms. This plant requires phosphorus for healthy root development. Fertilizer that is too high in nitrogen can affect flower production; try using 5-10-5 NPK fertilizer, which is boosted in phosphorus.

Types of Columbine

Types of columbine include dwarf varieties that are just 6 inches tall, as well as larger varieties, such as McKana's Giants, that are more than 3 feet tall with large flowers. Keep in mind that Aquilegia varieties readily cross-pollinate. If you plant more than one variety, be prepared to see new colors and combinations. A small fraction of Columbine varieties include:

• Aquilegia flabellata 'Nana': This dwarf cultivar with light blue and white bi-colored flowers grows 6 to 9 inches tall.
• Aquilegia 'Crimson Star': Crimson red and white bi-colored flowers with long spurs grow 24 to 30 inches tall. Blooms for four to six weeks in late spring to early summer.
• Aquilegia 'McKana Hybrid': Bi-colored flowers with long spurs in shades of blue and white, red and yellow, and combinations of pink and purple grow up to 30 inches. This plant blooms late spring to early summer.
• Aquilegia caerulea Rocky Mountain columbine: This columbine has grayish-green, fern-like foliage, very large white flowers with violet-blue sepals and yellow stamens, and grows to 24 inches tall. It blooms for four to six weeks in the late spring and early summer.
• Aquilegia vulgaris 'Clementine Salmon-Rose': This long-blooming variety has salmon-colored, upward-facing blooms that resemble the blossoms of a double-flowered clematis and grows 14 to 16 inches tall.
• Aquilegia Songbird 'BlueBird': This columbine blooms with long-spurred blue and white flowers that grow to 3 inches long. This Songbird Series of columbine also includes 'Cardinal' (all red) and 'Dove' (all white).

Pruning

Prune columbine plants back to their healthy basal leaves just after blooming. Doing so might promote a second set of stem growth within a few weeks enabling you to enjoy another wave of blooms later in the season. Columbines can be cut back to about half of their height after flowering to keep the plant attractive and green for the remainder of the summer.

Propagating Columbine

Columbine can be propagated by division or sowing seeds. Division is more labor intensive, as columbine has deep roots and the plants are not easy to lift and divide. Columbine can be divided in the spring, once every two or three years. A divided plant remains vibrant and vigorous for many years. If you must divide, take these steps.

1. Use a shovel or spade to dig down as deeply as possible in a circle around the roots to loose up the plant from the ground.
2. Lift the plant out of the ground being careful not to break up the soil around the root system.
3. Work fast to divide and re-plant: divide the plant as quickly as you can with a sharp, sterilized knife. Try not to dislodge soil around the roots.
4. Replant one division into the same planting hole and backfill the hole with well-draining soil.
   

How to Grow Columbine From Seed

Propagating from collected seeds is the easiest way to grow columbine. After the flowers have faded and dried up, harvest the ripened seed pods left inside and break them open to collect the shiny black seeds. Then take these steps:

1. Store the seeds in packets in the refrigerator over the winter. They need three to four weeks of cold before they can germinate.
2. To start the seeds indoors, plant them in moist soil by laying one to two columbine seeds on top of the soil mix and cover them lightly with additional soil.
3. Set the starter pots in a sunny indoor location. The seedlings will need 16 hours of light, so a grow light is recommended if necessary.
   
4. The seedlings will germinate and emerge in three to four weeks.
5. When the plants reach 3 to 4 inches in height and develop a pair of true leaves, pot them into larger containers.
6. Begin to harden them off gradually for two weeks.
7. Columbine seeds can be directly sown in the garden in early spring or summer. Plant the seedlings outdoors about 10 inches apart.

Potting and Repotting Columbine

If you want to plant columbine in pots for outdoor use, plant each seedling in a deep, medium-sized (10-inch) container. Container material can be plastic, clay, wood, or stone, but ensure the pot has drainage holes at the bottom. Fill each container with good quality, well-draining potting soil. 

Overwintering

Columbines can withstand cold temperatures. At the end of their growing season, remove any wilted columbine foliage and cut the stalks to the ground. Flower stalks will regrow next spring, along with any new plants that successfully self-seeded. For extra protection from winter temperatures, scatter a light layer of mulch or decaying leaves around the plant crown.

Common Pests & Plant Diseases

Columbine foliage often bears the "doodling" of leaf miners, but the damage usually is not serious and gives the foliage a sort of randomly "variegated" look that can be appealing to some gardeners. Keep an eye out for the first signs of doodling, inspect the leaves for the larvae, and crush them with your fingers. You can also handpick leaves at the first sign of mining activity.

Other common pests include columbine sawflies and columbine aphids. Aphids can cause stunted growth while sawflies cause defoliation. To control aphids and sawflies, spray with ultra-fine horticultural oil or insecticidal soap.

Fungal diseases like gray mold and powdery mildew can affect columbine. Remove faded flowers to prevent gray mold from developing. If symptoms like a fuzzy gray mold or white mildew start forming, apply a fungicide to control it.

How to Get Columbine to Bloom

Bloom Months

Columbine blooms from April through May or early June.

How Long Does Columbine Bloom?

Established plants typically bloom for about four weeks starting in mid-spring through early summer.

What Do Columbine's Flowers Look and Smell Like?

Columbine flowers are small with buttercup-like blooms sitting inside another layer of petals. These secondary outer petals that extend backward are called spurs (long outgrowths of the primary petals), and they are usually but not always a darker shade than the inner petals. The plants are frequently used in rock and woodland gardens, as well as in cottage gardens.

Most columbine varieties have little to no scent, but Rocky Mountain columbine (Aquilegia caerulea) has a distinctive sweet smell.

How to Encourage More Blooms

If columbine is sown in the spring, it will not bloom the first year. If you plant columbine in the fall, however, it will bloom the following spring.

Many varieties of columbine won't bloom at all until their second season. They need the first season to grow a healthy root system and have no energy to spare for the lovely flowers. Here are a few more tips on how to encourage blooms:

• Make sure the layer of mulch used for overwintering is removed early in the season, as this can stifle blooms.
• Keep in mind that soil heavy in nitrogen produces lovely green foliage but inhibits the growth of blooms.
• Extend columbine's bloom period by pinching spent flowers back to just above a bud.

Deadheading Columbine

If you do deadhead columbine, the plant may surprise you with more blooms and a longer season. However, it will not be able to replace itself for the next year since it will not be able to drop any seeds.

If you do not deadhead and keep the spent blooms on the plant, it will be able to drop seeds and replace itself for next year. But the plant won't have energy left to produce any more flowers for an extended bloom period.

Common Problems With Columbine

Columbine plants can be grown in a range of climates and are easy to grow in a home garden. Like any garden plant, they are susceptible to a few problems in addition to insect activity and fungal infections. Watch for these signs.

Yellowing Leaves

In areas with hot or dry summers, columbine leaves can turn yellow. If you keep the soil evenly moist, the plant might sustain itself. But if heat turns the leaves yellow or the plant dies down, cut the plant to its basal leaves. The plant is not dead. It might not come back until the next spring, but sometimes it can re-emerge in the early fall.

Leaves Turning White

Powdery mildew creates white powdery patches on the leaves. It can take over an entire plant, mainly during periods of high humidity when temperatures are warm and nights cool down. The fungus spreads through splashing water and travels by wind to infect other plants. Once established, powdery mildew is difficult to control. Treat an infected plant with a fungicide as soon as you notice symptoms; be sure to read the instructions on the product label for proper application methods.

Leaves Disappearing

One day you can have a full columbine plant, and the next, the leaves are gone. This defoliation is a sign of a slug infestation. Slugs come out at night. Put out bait such as a pan of beer or an upside-down melon rind. The slugs will be attracted to both. They'll drown in the beer, and you can dispose of the slug-infested melon rind. You can also spread diatomaceous earth around the base of the plant. The slugs will not cross that barrier.