An Iowa Garden

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I recently posted a rather whiny complaint about how columbines won't grow in my garden; a modest exception is Aquilegia Tower Light Blue, which has seeded about slightly in one spot. I guess if you can only have one columbine in your garden, this is a pretty nice one. Actually I don't much care for the plant habit itself; columbines in general are rather attractive when they first arise out of the ground in spring, but by the time they bloom, and especially later in the dry, dusty late summer, they become somewhat ungainly and "stalky". Well, A. Tower Light Blue actually accentuates that ungainliness, with rather sparse, low-growing foliage and very long stalks with the flowers "towering " over the low plants. I'm not sure why this trait was considered desirable, unless it is that it makes a better cutting plant (but columbines don't last well as a cutting flower). However, the flowers themselves... well, they are quite lovely; double flowers in kind of an old-fashioned dusty lavender, which contrast with the greenish unopened blooms.
So, here it is... my one columbine (assuming it's still there this spring); I'm still suspicious of alien columbine abductors being active hereabouts.



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