How to Prune Columbine (Aquilegia)

Columbine is a beautiful flowering perennial to have in any garden, with its nodding flowers and variety of colors. It fits well in cottage style gardens or woodland settings. It’s easy to care for and is troubled by few pests. Columbine grows best in zones 3 to 8 (see USDA link below to determine your hardiness zone). And with a little bit of pruning and maintenance, you can extend its bloom time and your enjoyment of this lovely flower further into the season. Columbines grow from a basal rosette of foliage, sending up stalks with multiple blooms. When finished blooming, each individual flower turns into a seed pod, full of tiny black seeds. To prolong the blooming period of columbine you need to interrupt this seed producing process by removing the faded flowers and any seed pods that have formed. The plant then sends up more flowers in an effort to make more seeds. Since columbine are perennial and grow back from their rootstock, you’ll still have a columbine in the same spot next year, even if you remove the seeds. Of course, you can save some of the seeds and plant more columbine. There can never be too many of these charming beauties.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

things you’ll need:

• Columbine in need of pruning
• Sharp scissors
• Paper envelope (if collecting seeds)
• Pen (to mark envelope if collecting seeds)

1. Columbine stems are tall, branching into several stems and then carrying their flowers on the ends of those stems above their basal foliage. You can begin pruning the individual flowers as they fade. In the drawing, the cuts illustrated are made over the course of the life of that stem, starting from the top and eventually removing the entire stem. Flowers can be easily pinched off with your fingers, or a small scissors, as you walk through the garden. Take care not to cut off buds, which in their early stages can resemble seed pods.
2. When all the flowers on any given branch have been pruned off, you can cut that entire stem down to where it joins the next biggest branch, leaving any buds and flowers on the adjacent branches.
3. When you’ve removed all the faded flowers and have only a bare stem, cut them down to the basal rosette of foliage. You may have several to cut at the same time, leaving you with just the green foliage at the base.
4. And here’s where the benefit of pruning columbine becomes apparent. In a few weeks, you’ll notice fresh sets of stems with flower buds visible growing from the basal foliage. There may be fewer than the first bloom, but you’ll have plenty to enjoy.
5. At the end of the growing season, don’t prune the basal foliage. Let it die back on its own after the first frosts. In the spring, just clean up any dead leaves and wait for your columbine to bloom again. It’s not one of the first plants to emerge in the spring (here in my zone 4b-5a at least) so be patient for those tender green leaves to appear.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep a small scissors in your pocket as you walk in your garden for quick pruning. A few minutes here and there can make quick work of removing faded blooms.

• Columbine seeds can be saved in a paper envelope in the refrigerator if not planted that year. Mark the envelope with the name of the plant and the date the seeds were collected and keep in the lower level of the refrigerator. Sprinkle them on the ground in the spring. They need light to germinate, so don’t cover them with soil.