hey paul ... i am not aware of columbine having bulbs ... at best you saw roots ... frankly .. my generic columbine.. are no better than a biennial ... but seed enough.. to come back all the time ... they are the state flower of CO .. and as such.. i think of it this way .. they grow in the mountains ... and elevation usually means cool nights .. in full sun.. probably with very high drainage.. and might not prefer a damp soil ... here in adrian mi.. i have pure sand.. and they grow in shade ... with little or no water so from those 2 equations.. i would suspect soil/drainage ... not sun ... though the foo foo flowers are spectacular.. IMHO.. its a plant you plan on buying every year ... so you always have some blooming .... and if the cost is too much.. walk on buy ... ken ps: the foo foo ones will probably not come true from seed.. and you will probably end up with the more common ones i have ... a regression of the genetics in the F1 foo foo's ...

the bugs on columbine.. will eat every single leaf... leaving just a skeleton ... they finished one of mine just last week ... fortunately.. they finish.. days before the first pod ripens ... ergo ... its useless to spray them.. IMHO ... C are extremely short lived as to bloom ... no matter how much you deadhead ... and in fact.. the skeleton structure.. continues to photosynthesize... regardless ... i just dont know.. if this would be a circumstance... to encourage total nuclear warfare as to bugs in the garden ... ken

Aside from the aquilegia (columbine), and the geranium pusillum pictured above, maybe starting the others on your list from seed was a bit too ambitious. I've had coral bells (which was the name heuchera seemed to have 35 years ago) and split and resplit the original plants many times to increase my stock. I get the wild columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) in every shady nook and cranny, but cannot get the modern ones to self seed or last for more than a season. The geranium pusillum is a nuisance for me - that will never look better than it does right now in your picture: the flowers are very tiny, they will start to sprawl and become ground hugging, and they self-seed everywhere. I'm always pulling it up and in the strangest places. In all honesty, despite whatever gardening skills I might have - growing from seed has never been one of my successes. Pretty much, the only seeds I purchase are zinnias because I can directly sow them when the soil warms up; they grow and bloom beautifully untill frost knocks them down. Many people have the knack of growing from seed - indoors under lights, lucky enough to have greenhouses, winter sow. I am not one of them - I learned early on and to avoid my own personal disappointment in seeds not germinating, getting too big then damping off, etc., I no longer even try. That does not mean you shouldn't continue to try. Everything that I might need to fill in or replace or want to try, I simply buy from a garden center, big box store, plant sale, farmers market, etc. - those who grow and sell plants have to make a living too - or I split and divide my existing plants. Don't be too disappointed; gardening is a never ending learning process. Even though the failures are hard they just make the successes all the sweeter.

I have transplanted this wild Columbine into my garden and they have done even better than they do in the wild around my home. I would suggest planting them right where you want them to grow; pots tend to dry out and stress plants more quickly. They tend to wilt soon after transplanting if they are going to at all so the fact that yours haven't is a good sign. Typically, the smaller the plant is the better it will transplant because there are fewer roots to disturb so if you transplant any more I would recommend taking baby ones. Also, transplanting ones that are or were in flower may stress them too much for them to finish setting seeds, just an idea because I don't know. Now that mine are established and flowering I let them go to seed the babies grow around the parents by themselves. Then you can transplant them the following spring if you want them elsewhere. Mine are growing in full shade but I think that they would probably do even better in part-full shade like you are planning on. So take courage, I think you're doing fine and you should be enjoying lovely columbines in your garden next spring!