It flowered well last year and the year before, but during the Winter of 2014/15 it died. The main crown of the plant initially went soft and soggy and then dried up. Definitely 100% dead.
However, all is not lost, because the plant set lots of seeds, many of which have now germinated around the edge of the pot in which the parent plant had been growing..
This is characteristic of Aquilegias. They self-seed very prolifically. For this reason it is quite a good idea to grow them in pots like some of mine, making them easier to control.
I will wait till the seedlings are a bit bigger and choose one or two of the stronger specimens to transplant and start all over again.
Talking of starting all over again... The Cotinus tree that had appeared to be dead or mostly dead now seems to be undergoing a resurrection. Along some of the bigger branches lots of tiny new shoots are appearing:
To me this seems unusual. The new leaves normally appear at the ends of existing twigs. I'm not complaining though, because I had thought this tree beyond redemption, and I am very glad that it is not.
This is a less unexpected resurrection - my "Bishop of Llandaff" Dahlia, which has been kept in a pot of dry compost in the garage over Winter:
I had vaguely planned to divide the plant into several smaller ones, but I think I may have missed the opportunity, and in any case I think it is best if I don't have too many pots to worry about! [Just for clarity: "Too many" = as many as I want + 1.]
I wonder whether your aquilegia will come trye to the parent as we haver lots of colours that have appeared that we didn't plants and differing shapes too which must have come from self sown seedlings.
ReplyDeleteFor me you already have too many pots. I love the look of pots. I'm just terrible at keeping up with watering them. They need watering so much more than the main garden. I have enough trouble in the spring trying to keep my transplants watered. Though I'd love some flower pots down my back steps.
ReplyDeleteMost of my aquilegies are either self sown purple or pink ones, I find them all over the garden, they're so prolific. I've got a red and yellow one but I've got my eye on the all yellow ones, I think they're so pretty.
ReplyDeleteThe aquilegia blooms are so pretty! Glad you've got the seedlings..expecting to see more lovely pictures in the near future!:)
ReplyDelete