Aquilegia caerulea - Colorado Blue Columbine Seeds - Exotic Perennial Cut Flowers - New

This genus belongs to the Ranunculaceae family, and contains around 70 species found over much of the temperate and subarctic Northern Hemisphere. This is an adaptable genus, with species and varieties suitable for a range of situations including woodlands, rockeries, and perennial borders, and they are well known for their dainty long-spurred flowers, which are borne in clusters atop wiry stems. The genus name is derived from the Latin aquila, meaning eagle, and lego, meaning to gather suggesting that the spurs situated at the base of the flower resemble the closing talons of an eagle.

Aquilegia species are clump-forming perennials with fine-stemmed, often blue-green foliage that emerges from a woody rootstock. The leaves are divided into small fan-shaped leaflets, often resembling maidenhair-fern fronds in shape, if not in size.

Aquilegia caerulea commonly known as Colorado Blue Columbine is native to the USA’s Rocky Mountains from Montana south to New Mexico and west to Idaho and Arizona. It is a perennial plant growing to from 20cm to 60cm tall and could possibly be the most attractive Aquilegia of all. From late spring to early summer it bears glorious light to deep blue, sometimes bi-coloured with white, flowers 5cm to 7.5cm across. It is an excellent border perennial that also makes excellent cut flowers. It is in bloom for several weeks and will grow in sun or light shade.