Expe ’s choice Aquilegias

These cottage garden favourites come in a huge range of shapes and colours says Graham Rice

A friend of mine used to grow more different aquilegias than anyone else I ever knew, in fact he held the Plant Heritage National Collection. The problem was that they’re highly promiscuous. So, in the first ever recorded use of social distancing, in order to keep the seed pure, he grew them all in pots. Then, just before flowering time, he barrowed them individually all over the village, so they were well separated and couldn’t pollinate each other!

So you know what will happen if you grow more than one variety: they’ll hybridise and the following year you’ll have all sorts of colours and flower shapes – which can be great! But if you want aquilegias in a specific colour you must grow that colour alone. Even then the bees may bring pollen from over the fence so it’s safest to buy fresh seed each year. The seed companies often produce their seed in insect-proof greenhouses.

There’s now a huge variety of flower forms, single and double, of colours and bicolours and even a few that hold their flowers up to look you in the eye instead of nodding them. Either way, they’re best treated as biennials or short-lived perennials for sowing in early summer, to build up fat plants for next year. Or of course you could just allow them to self sow and see what happens.

Best in sun or partial shade in any reasonable soil that’s not waterlogged or parched.

Hardy everywhere in the country.

Sow seeds in from June to August, or allow to self sow. You can deadhead to prevent self-sowing. Cut back hard at the end of the season so the unfurling spring foliage can show itself off well.

Yellow mottled leaves then fluffy white growth on the undersides is a sign of downy mildew – destroy any infected plants.

Where to buy chilternseeds.co.uk, 01491 824675 nickys-nursery.co.uk, 01843 600972, plant-world-seeds.com, 01803 872939