How to Transplant Columbines

Columbines float over their scalloped leaves on nearly invisible stems. Horticulturalists speculate that the name "aquilegia" came from the Latin word for "eagle," because the flowers combined a complex silhouette with the delicate appearance of flight. Native, wild columbine is red and yellow, found in the light shade of rocky, forested areas. Remember to leave wild columbines where you find them, but check out the even more spectacular cultivated varieties sold at your local garden center. Plant them in mixed sun and shade, and if you need to transplant them, follow these suggestions.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

things you’ll need:

• Columbine plants
• Spade
• Peat moss or compost

1. Dig up your plant(s) with a good clump of dirt underneath. Columbines have short, mostly horizontal roots but also an underground stem called a caudex. You don’t want to clip off part of the plant by pulling it out or assuming the caudex belongs to something else. Dig a hole slightly bigger than the plant’s rootball, line it with a thin layer of peat moss and replant. Water and tamp down dirt. Water consistently till you’re certain it has survived transplant shock.
2. Let your columbine transplant itself. When blossoms fade, leave stems uncut until seed-pods dry and scatter. Your big plant thus sows new small ones around it. Since columbines can be short-lived perennials in areas with cold winters, reseeding replaces plants that are losing their vigor.
3. Gather seeds as they ripen and plant new seedlings. Seeds are ripe when they turn black; gather them then or they will turn to powder. Cold-stratify them (refrigerate in a plastic container between layers of damp paper towel) for 3 weeks. Then place on top of potting soil and put close to a window. Seeds need warmth (70 to 75 degrees F) to germinate, and they also need light, which is why you do not cover them when first planted. Seedlings set out in the fall are unlikely to bloom the following spring but should bloom the following year.
4. Remember that the cultivated columbine purchased from your garden center is the result of great amounts of cross-breeding for larger flowers, hardiness or a special color. Seeds don’t know all the work that went into them, so your new plants may or may not be true to type. If your blue parent plant yields blue seedlings, great. If its offspring is yellow, red or both, that’s a happy surprise.

Tips & Warnings

• Columbine can be hardy to zones 5 through 3, but last longer if they are mulched with hay, pine needles or compost in harsh winters.

• Your columbine may well yellow and die back in late summer or fall; this is natural.