Aquilegia Eastern Red Columbine

Delicate, pendent flowers in abundance over loose, deeply divided foliage. The red sepals have long spurs and encase the yellow petals. This unusual combination of colour really draws the eye.

Aquilegia canadensis holds the prestigious RHS Award of Garden Merit for its tough, easy growing nature. It is more sun tolerant than most Aquilegia and can take full sun in cold climes.

Aquilegias are cottage garden essentials with sweet flowers and delightfully lacy, fern like foliage. They make a beautiful foil for the fading spring flowering bulbs - as their fresh foliage begins growing in early spring, when the bulbs are going into senescence.

Aquilegia are suitable for growing in a lightly shaded to morning sun position. You could plant them in borders, as massed plantings, in beds or in containers.

After the initial flowering has finished, you can cut the stems back to the basal foliage and add some fertiliser to encourage more blooms. You can leave the last flowers of the season to form seed heads for future generations of plants, keeping in mind seedlings are unlikely to flower true to type as Aquilegias hybridise easily.

Aquilegias really are a cottage garden essential with sweet flowers and delightful lacy foliage. It is hard to show how really amazing they are, you need to try them for yourself.