Sometimes known as columbines or granny’s bonnets, aquilegias are charming, old-fashioned cottage garden plants with bonnet-shaped flowers, often two-tone and with long graceful spurs. They come in a very wide range of colours, from white to pale pink and from dark purple to red.

Flowering in early summer, aquilegias fill the seasonal gap between the last of the spring bulbs and the first of the summer flowers. They self-seed readily, and look wonderful naturalised amongst shrubs and roses. However, the plants interbreed freely and seedlings rarely resemble the parents. If you’d rather avoid this, deadhead plants after flowering to prevent self-seeding.

Grow aquilegias from seed, or buy them as plants at the garden centre. Grow in fertile, moist but well-drained soil in sun to partial shade, in the middle of the border.

Lift and divide clumps every three to five years and mulch annually with well-rotted manure or compost.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/10-aquilegias/