Columbine like to self-seed in the garden quite a bit. My guess is your more dominant plants and/or genes are expressing themselves. ;)

Rip up a few of the surplus pink and plant some new ones of the colours you want.

In my piece of soil, the blue-purple dominates - hence I've been dead heading and allowing the Heidi Pinks to reseed. I too have lost some bi-colored I've planted in the past.

I can collect seeds for you if interested.

That's funny, because I seem to have a solid blue/purple that is more abundant than the other colors. I was just thinking I was going to have to pull some of them out. I didn't think of deadheading to keep them from reseeding. Good idea!

I found 'Dragonfly' columbines on sale two years ago and I love those. They have the bicolor front facing blooms with good size spurs on them. They were moved last year, so I am looking forward to letting them go to seed this year because I would like more.

So, they are growing right next to the solids. I'm wondering if the bicolor will remain in the seedlings.

go buy some new seed ...

regression of the genetic makeup of the originals.. has taken yours back toward the state flower of CO .. most likely a species, but i am not sure of that .... and you will not be able to do anything about it ...

ken

Thanks for all the insight. I will pull a few up when they stop flowering and replace with blue and white and yellow and white if I can still find them.

Thank you Ken, for the enlightenment - I read or was told, sometime ago that collecting seeds for sowing or allowing Columbines (Aquiligia) to re-seed will most likely produce inferior plants ... didn't know they may revert to original species. You might be right ... could also revert to the wild ( tinier blossomed ones). I had a year when they grew like weeds all over & even in the most unlikely cracks & crannies & mostly purple! I ended up taking all the bloom stems down (dead-heading would have been pain!) & allowed only the pinks to seed some. These past few years I'm discovering different shades of purples, pinks & light mauves also finding very teeny-tiny blossoms (quite adorable!).

I planted *Songbird Goldfinch* seeds turned black before I could collect & plant never returned! BTW also read that *Alpine Blue* is the most hardy/dominant & great seeder!

allowing Columbines (Aquiligia) to re-seed will most likely produce inferior plants ...

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it is not an inferior plant .... for what it is.. and what it does ....

its a free ranger.. adding a sprinkle of red/pink and yellow around the garden ...

yet easy to remove or tame if you wish ....

but its only inferior if you expect something else..

eh??

ken