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columbine

21 years ago

i have the native red/yellow aguilegia canadensis in my garden here in new york. this is the only NE native columbine i am familiar with.

my friend has a house up in the catskill mountains. she has columbine as well. she has had this house for 20 years and never planted them but they grow all over her field. however, they are purple. native? non-native? i know the ones out west are often purple and facing upwards. i don't have a pic, as they are past blooming but if someone could tell me that it would be near impossible to have a native NE columbine blooming purple that would be helpful.

thanks!

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Comments (7)

sarahbn
21 years ago
The aquilegia canadensis is red annd yellow and there is a solid yellow variety but the other colors are eitner western or european. Sarah
dgower82
21 years ago
They are probably aquilegia vulgaris, the non-native kind. Does anyone know if these will cross with the native kind? Because isn't the hummingbird the only one that pollinates canadensis, but will not pollinate vulgaris?
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sarahbn
21 years ago
I know they reseed all over the place. Sarah
ahughes798
21 years ago
Columbines will cross with other columbines like crazy! They're lusty things, LOL! April
Elaine_NJ6
21 years ago
Yes--I originally had a bunch of hybrid columbines in many pastel shades. I thought I pulled them all out and then planted the species, but I still get seedlings that bloom in many shades of red and yellow, salmon and white, pink and cream, etc. Since they all look identical until they bloom, and at this point are probably all hybrid, I can't seem to eliminate the non-pure. Just shows you how difficult it is to plant or grow only pure natives.
amgrant
21 years ago
I isolated a frilly-leaved columbine from a batch of seedlings of Aquilegia caerula (Rocky Mtn columbine). It hasn't bloomed yet to see the flower color--I will probably have to wait until spring. I don't know if I should get excited over a possible mutation, or if it's just a contaminant from another batch of seed. I plant at least a dozen varieties of columbines every year--alas, not all of them natives. But no frilly ones. Has anyone else seen a columbine like this?
knottyceltic
21 years ago
I'm pretty sure you are in Carolinian forest just like me to the north. Your only native columbine that I know of would be "candadensis" the one you have described. Mine have been decimated this summer due to "sawfly larvae" (a 1/2" green wormy looking thing...they can defoliate an entire plant in one night) so I have to wait till next year to find out if they survived the onslaught.

Barb
southern Ontario, CANADA zone 6a

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