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| I love columbine but they seem like such a picky fragile plant. I buy 2 I lose 3 fancy trick I do :P So anyway I have this one that over wintered in a pot and was coming up quite nicely until the rain from last week now it looks ragged and crappy. I re-potted it a little with miracle grow soil and a compost mix but for me when they get ratty it usually means they are getting close to death. I didn't want to disturb it too much so I tried to leave the roots alone as much as possible. Is there something I can do for it before I lose it? This one is supposed to be a large red and white one and it's really hard to find columbine plants around here I would really like to save it. HELP!!! |
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| Columbine do not like to be transplanted except when they are very young. I don't know anything about zones 3/4 but if you are trying to overwinter columbine in pots, that could be the problem. Potted perennials should be hardy to at least one zone below where you are, some say two. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Mon, May 23, 11 at 8:59
| columbine is closer to a biennial or short lived perennial ... there was a post about such recently.. should not be more than page 2 .... i would not waste my time trying to make it long lived in pots ... IMHO.. wrong plant for the wrong application .. your problem is simply that it is not a plant that should be potted .... or going to live long in a pot .... why isnt it in the ground???? if you have to use pots.. mark columbine.. BEEN THERE DONE THAT ... and move on .... there should be much easier plants to deal with in pots .... ken |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Mon, May 23, 11 at 9:58
| IME, they are not the slightest bit picky or fragile. In fact, they tend to be quite durable and adjust to all sorts of garden conditions (with the exception of wet soils) -- they will sprout freely in gravel paths and even between the cracks of patio pavers. And while they may not be very long-lived, they reseed freely and can therefore have a very long lasting presence in the garden. If started colombine plant are hard to locate in your area, I'd suggest starting them from seed - incredibly easy to grow in this manner. Just sow the seeds (in fall or spring) where you want them - not only are they fussy about transplanting, they form a tap root that is hard to dislodge without damaging the plant. |
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- Posted by alyciaadamo 3/4 (My Page) on Mon, May 23, 11 at 13:33
| Ken I really didn't intend to keep them in pots it just got really busy last fall with my DD's starting school and dance. It seemed like I never got outside to even water for a few minutes. It got so close to the line that I planted Hostas right on top of spring flowers. gardengal So do you think I should put my sick plant in the garden right away? Do you think that is why it is failing? I have not planted it this spring yet because I wanted to wait until most of my Perennials started to come up so I did not plant it on top of something else. |
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| I do not find columbine difficult to transplant and do it all the time. Just be sure to take a large amount of soil around the rootball. They may look wilted for the first day or two but soon perk up. They are very easy to start from seed both by scattering and by wintersowing. Over the years I have traded for seeds and have many varieties. They can be short lived though I have some that have bloomed for many years. Leaf miners eat all the leaf except for the veins. When that happens I cut them down. Sometimes they will come back and bloom again. Other times they are gone until the next spring when they grow and bloom again. So, don't be so quick to discard your potted one if it dies back. By deadheading I have had columbine bloom from spring until fall. It can be tedious so only some of my favorites get deadheaded. We were gone this weekend and arrived home to see tremendous growth and columbines starting to bloom.
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| I had a mature well-established Spring Magic plant that I transplanted in Spring before bloom. It was severely weakened by this treatment, got terrible leaf miners, and never returned. This was a bummer, it was a beautiful plant. However, I've transplanted other mature Aquilegia plants in the Spring, and they didn't thrive, but did okay. In the past couple years, I've started several cultivars of Aquilegia caerulea from seed (including Origami). This is by far my favorite species and I plan to try out many more. Growing from seed is cheap and easy, and they transplant very well. I don't care for many of the open-pollinated seedlings however. A lot of them seem to turn out this muddy solid purple or reddish purple color that is unremarkable. |
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| I move Aquilegia all the time. A mature plant looks like c**p at first, but I cut off the worst of the wilted leaves, and by fall (or if I moved it late in the summer, by spring) it looks fine. My biggest problem is that I find them impossible to kill! |
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| I am with gg - they are all over my piece of soil. When I can't keep-up w/ dead heading, I'm in trouble & have to pull up & deal w/ guilt. I've read that the self-sown plants are usually inferior ~ not with most of the ones that spring up here. I allow them where they like most of the time, while all the other bloomers are still working on their shows (between Spring-bulbs & the Roses) then I dig them up - as mentioned the Purple is quite dominant! I particularly love the little ones that ended up ~ perchance from mutations (??) or reversion to origin ~ they look like Little Faery Ballerinas not shy & nodding like the bigger relations! I also have a real wild one I patrol ~very tall stem for such small blossom! FWIW |
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