Columbines of all sorts

For digging_dirt, who loves columbines. Nora Barlow

Why didn't anybody TELL me?

This message was edited Apr 13, 2006 2:33 PM

A good blue one.

A volunteer, with the Forget-me-nots.

Great photos Brenda. I especially like #2.

I want # 2 picture not the bathroom. I wonder what one you have? Please tell me Echoes!

echoes, are columbine difficult to sprout from seed? I've always loved them, but for some reason have never tried them from seed.

My natives are very easy to sprout I just shake off the seeds and they start up the next year where ever I shake. We have started to do that with some hybrids and will know this year if they start.

Remind me - are they technically perennial, or biannual, can never remember?

What colours are the native ones to you? Sounds so pretty.

I think bienniels. They throw up 24" tall stalks with small white to pink flowers. Only about a dozen flowers on each flower stalk. each plant has 3 to 4 stalks. How do you like my description of plants. Duhhh.

Reminds me of a friend's son, who when very small, and asked what kind of dog he had, thought deeply for a while, and then said "It has hair on its face."

all the ones i have are perennials thay come back year after year.
It takes two years for them to flower,
mmm so do most perennials.
and thay are easy to grow .
digging_dirt

I have grown Columbines from seed for the last few years via wintersowing method. They are usually one of the last seeds to sprout for me but when they do they grow like gangbusters! All the columbines which I have are perennial. I have about 12 varieties now and love all of them.

Michelle

Does anyone know a seed source for McKana giants which are not packaged as mixed colours, or have the common red/yellow combination omitted? I have grown mixed colour collection in the past, but would like to have just soft pastels. Echoes, thanks for posting your photos.
Jacqui

Hi everybody. Glad you enjoyed the pics. I'm surprised no one else has put up any of their columbines. Please feel free to show us your own.

From my experience, these are a short lived perennial for me. I have read where some people keep them for many years and divide them, even. I think three or four years is about the max for me, but maybe if I look after them a bit better? Time will tell. It's hard to keep track when the self sow themselves around.

The native ones around here are a soft red with yellow centers. I know of two species.

Not sure where McKanas are sold seperately, but will keep an eye open for you. There are others that are sold by seperate colours though. Often the Barlows, which are all nice anyway. They have no yellow in the mix.

I think this is one from a trade with bootandall a couple of years ago.

More Barlow

Not the best picture, but all I can find for a close up of William Guinness (also called Magpie)

I bought some mckana Giants a couple years ago from walmart thay were mixed colors but most that grew were the red with yellow centers and purple with a lavander center that are a columbine with a huge flower.echoes i have one columbine thats must be at least 30 years old it came from my great aunts garden and it still flowers.Do you furtlize the regulary .i dump alot of compost on mine thay love it.
Wish i had some pic's of mine ,i will this year .That one from bootandall is soooooo nice im drooling just looking at it he's sending me some should be here in a fue days hope the seed for that one is in amoung the ones he sendes.Echoes you must have a big colection if columbine as will.I have one that growes 9 inches high from base to top of the flower planted it last year should flower this year.

Love that purple one.

I grew McKana's hybrids a few years ago (well, 24, to be accurate) and they weren't too hard to grow. They are a short-lived perennial. They bloomed the second year, but petered out in year 4 and 5, then vanished. They might have done better if I had divided them. The colours were vibrant, interesting combinations in the bicolours. I also remember a nice big lemon-yellow one. Conditions are good for them at the cottage -- hundreds of wild ones mid-May through mid-July.

digging, I don't do anything regularly. It's pretty hit and miss around here, but lets say eventually more than regularly. Some beds get more attention than others, and the roses, irises and lilies get the most attention. There is never enough compost. My columbines usually get the leaf miner problems too. Maybe they don't care too much for hot humid summers, but I'll always keep growing them, because they are so pretty and so easy to start.

Cheryl that's one of my favourites too. Thanks

OK here is a place to see/buy some seeds for columbine. If she has some left. I have ordered from her a few times, but not for a few years. She has some seperate colours and at a dollar a pkt, I'd get a bunch.

Yes, I know, I am supposed to be working on my seed starting.
so long for now

edited because - No longer recommending, and her prices more than doubled, with far fewer selections.


This message was edited Jan 4, 2007 7:00 PM

Bad bad echoes!!!!!!

yes me to echoes ,i have to get back to mine as will,
begining to run out of space.
My wife said to me this afternoon spring must be here theres more soil inside then out she sayes im trying to fill our basement in again lol.

ok you guys tell us what the worst thing you used to grow plants in.
Mine is those jeffy peat pellets,the ones you put in water and that puff up,man i hate them.
Echoes just checked out that link wow

pressed peat pots, which got mold on the outside the likes of which I've never seen - long wavy tendrils, like something out of science fiction, creeped me right out!

echoes, you are very naughty - you gave me that link, and I went and ordered seeds!!

It's all your fault, I wasn't aware of them before!

Nice pics Brenda! I just love columbine even more now! I snatched some seeds from a purple columbine last year where we rented a cottage and I have about 5 other types to start. Much to look forward to! My only complaint is those dang leaf miners and the old house I used to have, had columbine that were severely infected. I never could get it under control. I'm hoping I'll better be able to tackle them if they start up in these ones.
Here's another link I came across for columbine:
http://www.tsflowers.com/seeds.html#PERENNIALS

Erynne

I love the peat pots for growing seed starts for Ponderosa pine here in the true NW. Here in Montana we have never seen mold. Of course I have never seen a dust mite either. Pt Alberni has all of their bathroom painted green so in the winter visitors aren't freaked out by the green grafitti on the shower walls. Hee Hee

This message was edited Mar 10, 2006 8:46 PM

Oh yes, Erynne. tsflowers.com is where I ordered hem seeds a couple of times. Forgot about her columbine seeds. There you can buy quite a few seperate colours and types too. I've seen Teresa at another gardening site where a lot of GardenWeb refugees ended up. I think you can order from her with confidence. Think of all the great trades we'll be able to make in a couple of years with everybody growing all these different ones.

Sofer! Sit down.

I have problums with the peat pots drying out fast,and if you water to much that fall apart.and thay do get moldy more so in a green house then again most do on mine .

i know 2zeus i have one done to, and now thers another i think i will make one out for there two.

Soferdig, you wouldn't be referring to our liquid sunshine, would you, by chance?(the local's name for rain)

ha,ha, echoes thats so funny garden web refugees.
I have to confess i was one now i lost my refugee statis .. i payed my dues,lol
I didnt know how mush fun the site was i now better now.
yes we will all have to make a point to keep in touch via this site and see how we all made out with our columbine seeds.
I was at a garding buddies house this moring three of us by seeds and get to gether and swap what we have will there mouths hit the floor when i put what i had on the table you could see the wheels turning in there heads when thay saw what i had.

So you had some good stuff from trades? Or you bought some special seeds?

Arrrff arrrfff ok I'll sit. Peat pots (compressed type) after soaking and being left outside in the cold AND WET liquid sunshine never get dry and by summer they are in 4" pots or tubes to be Irrigated in the nursery.
Oh I know what liquid sunshine is. I was in Seattle in the mid 70's when one year we had 2 weeks of sun in Aug only. Everyone walked out of the skyscrapers and stood in the sun when it came out. I stayed until the people crowded me out. Also growing plants in zone 7-8 is no challenge. I love zone 4b!

No challenge? You try keeping something in the dirt when the monsoon season is slowing washing all your dirt away, and turning your entire yard into a water feature!!

Sorry Cheryl, that is not a condition exclusive to Zone 8. You have to come up with something better.

I know!

Sluuuuugggsss! Billions of slugs! Black shiny ones! Banana slugs - sort of mustardy yellow with brown spots and HUGE!

Fat brown ones with corrugated tops!

Hows that? Beat that!
Oh, and woodbugs, too - seventy zillion woodbugs can fit under one 4"pot.

LOLOL I think you just won with that one!!! ;)