Aquilegia...

Here are my beautiful, beautiful Columbines. I tried really hard to kill them. Honest. I did. But it just didn't work.





They were a very sweet gift from my Mom. She brought them to me several years ago as seedlings from her Columbine plants in her garden in Missouri. She told me that they hadn't bloomed yet, so she didn't know what color they were. Since I was so busy that week, I put the plants in their pot in a bucket with a little water in the bottom so they wouldn't dry out. Well, it rained. And the bucket filled up. And I stayed busy. And the poor Columbines ended up sitting, no, drowning in that bucket of water for several weeks. But still they hung in there.




When I finally did get them planted, I put them into the red clay that my land is made of. I did work some amendments in, but it was still too hard and hot and dry for the plants. Yet still they hung in there. But just barely and I could tell that they needed to be moved.

{Aquilegia hybrid}

Their next transition was to where they are now. Even though I had been so unkind to them, they bloomed anyway. In the right color for my garden. They have been very happy in this location and seem to have more flowers each year. I just love them and am thrilled that I didn't succeed in killing them. They have also produced seedlings of their own that I will get moved to other suitable locations in my garden.


Have a beautiful day!
P.S. In case you were wondering... I didn't really try to kill my Columbines. The hardships they endured were purely accidental.

Volunteers...

One of the things I enjoy about plants is the different ways in which they multiply. I love it when they reseed! (Except, of course, when it is the weeds that are reseeding!) It is so exciting to find a little plantlet, like this coral bells (Heuchera) that has reseeded itself in a container near the original plant.




I am careful when I am weeding, always looking to see what else may have reseeded itself. Maybe I will have to move the seedling to a different location, but I always try to keep the plants that have volunteered themselves. Free plants! Can't beat that! In this pot full of weeds, there is a little Johnnie seedling, waiting to be transplanted.



You never know where a seedling will appear. And often they show up in the most charming places. The columbine (Aquilegia) plant my mom gave me several years ago (I tried so hard to kill that plant, but that is another story) has reseeded itself and should bloom this spring.



Have a beautiful day!