How to grow: aquilegia
Carol Klein on a plant that looks like a ship's figurehead
IT seems strange that two birds as different as the eagle (in Latin, aquila) and the dove (columbus) should both give their name to the same flower - the aquilegia, or columbine. The petals are supposed to resemble the outspread wings of these birds, and the spurs their arched necks and heads. Whichever name you use, this genus offers some of the most garden-worthy and decorative of plants.
All aquilegias have wonderful foliage that emerges early in the year, creating tuffets of bright green among the sharp verticals of daffodils and other bulbs. They are among the most telling of springtime plants, both for foliage and for flowers.
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Aquilegia longissima is an exquisite flower. Its petals are a pale, soft, buttery yellow, and its spurs - of a deeper yellow, and sometimes up to 6in (15cm) long - are swept elegantly back, giving the whole flower the look of a ship's figurehead.
Like so many of the most desirable aquilegias, A. longissima comes from the New World, where it grows wild in the mountains of the southernmost states right down to Mexico. Long-spurred hybrids have been developed from it and from several other American species: its close cousin A. chrysantha; A. formosa, which has dainty red-and-yellow flowers; and A. coerulea, a graceful blue-and-white columbine with finely divided "maidenhair" leaves, which the State of Colorado has adopted as its emblem.
The genus aquilegia is widespread in the northern hemisphere: Europe and Asia, as well as America, have their own columbines. Many of the North American species are short-lived, but they can be grown easily from seed.
Aquilegia 'Columbine' Picture: Alamy
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3299601/How-to-grow-aquilegia.html