© Janet Davis
If my
garden was a moving picture, I know exactly where I’d freeze the frame – on
that perfect morning in late May or early June when sunshine lights the
shade-dappled corners where columbines grow amidst the ferns. 
There’s a
parade of columbines in gardens, starting with the old-fashioned pink and blue Aquiliegia
vulgaris. With its delicate red
spurs surrounding yellow petals, native Easter columbine, A. canadensis,
fits perfectly in a late-spring border of brilliant primary colors offset by
fresh spring green – red, yellow and orange tulips mixed with nodding Virginia
bluebells and wild blue phlox. (It
attracts hummingbirds!)
Rocky Mountain columbine, A.
caerulea, has sumptuous blue-and-white flowers at about 16 inches. I grow
this one with hay-scented fern. Then comes the double-flowered European hybrid,
“Nora Barlow,” taller still at 20 inches or so. Her spurless blossoms are an
engaging combination of pink and greenish white that make wonderful cut
flowers. And unlike many columbine hybrids whose seed produces inferior
offspring, her seed “comes true.”
Later still,
around delphinium time, come the ‘McKana Giants’, shown above, tall plants that
grow to 36 inches and bear lovely upfacing flowers, sometimes bi-coloured, with
extremely long spurs. The seed they produce is inferior, so new plants should
be started from named seed.
Golden columbine, A.
chrysantha, shown at right, is another tall one, but in a clear daffodil
yellow and quite fragrant. This would be effective paired with blue Jacob’s
ladder or blue camassia.
The long-spurred hybrids
hold their own in the early summer perennial border although the mixes make
designing by color tricky and look best in the company of ferns and hostas.
Grow columbines in moist, rich,
well-drained soil in sun or light shade.
They are amazingly easy from seed.
.
Foliage, alas, is
columbine’s only defect. As summer
warms, columbines are often attacked by leaf miners, tiny larvae of a small fly
that tunnel through the foliage, leaving behind a telltale yellow roadmap. But
these little critters do no long-term harm. If seriously infested plants are
cut back to the ground, fresh new foliage will soon emerge. And the odd creepy-crawler is a small price
to pay for such an engaging plant.
Adapted from a column published originally in the
Toronto Sun