Can I add a dumb question too....how long should I wait when my columbine has set seeds before I harvest them?
TIA
Bonny

I don't know the answer to the color question. I just harvest and label simply as columbine.

As for ripeness, just like most plants, the pods will turn brown and when they open at the top, you just turn them upside down and sprinkle like sugar. I do keep a watch on them thouogh, because the slender stems bend easily and the contents can spill in windy weather.

Look at it this way, whem ma nature provides the opening for the seeds to be shaken out, they are ready. She's the boss and knows best.

Thanks bakemom....I have to go tie my columbine up because it is already laying over but the tops haven't opened yet.
Bonny

Columbine seeds are ready when the pods are brown and have opened. You can hear the seeds rattle around in them when they're ready to save so don't harvest before that.

Columbines are also VERY promiscuous and will cross with any nearby columbine--nearby being your yard or your neighbors--so predictable colors are very iffy. But that's okay as every seedling grows into a plant with lovely flowers. They're all beautiful. I don't trade or share my seeds in colors, unless it is to make a specific reference to the color of the parent plant which will give an idea of the possible combos or spectrum of hues. As an example a dark grape flower may have children with grape tones, they might not be all dark grape themselves.

So trade them as a blend or mention that the parent plant was this or that color and that this or that color might be in the offspring.

T

Trudi, So when you say they will cross with any nearby columbine, does that mean seeds from origami might produce large plants, unlike dwarf little origami?

Karen

There are any number of possibilities, but there are also stronger tendencies in some of the characteristics of one parent over those of another. Sometimes blossom color trumps plant size, and sometimes leaf variegation trumps bloom time.

Since Aquilegia is such an old plant, there is probably genetic research available somewhere, but I don't have the vocabulary in English, and I don't think I want to learn German at this stage in my life.

I sowed a whole 64 cell flat of a nice variegated Columbine this year, with the express purpose of isolating and growing on the variegated seedlings. So far, out of 192 seeds, I have 4 tiny seedlings. None of them look variegated, but it's too soon to tell. I'll be nursing these seedlings for at least 2 years before I know if I got anything good. The plant I got the seeds from is all from the same seeds, but it's a mixed clump of variegated and non-variegated offspring from those seeds, and it lives in a bed with at least 4 other varieties of blooming Columbines, so heaven only knows what I'll get.

Thanks. Donn. I was hoping you'd come along since I figured you have an answer.

Good luck with those seeds and seedlings. You are a very patient man. All of my jugs have been dumped, about a week ago. Patience is not my strong point here.

Karen

Karen, you can expect variations in size as well as flower form. I have a maroon clematis-flowered type here, the offspring have some variations in spurs--some with, some without, some clematis flowers, some with the distinctive columbine tubes, some maroon-toned like the clematis-flowered parent, some not.

Basically, columbine crosses are like putting the genetic variations in a shaker jar, puting on the cap, amd bouncing up and down for a while. It's like a litter of mixed kittens--you don't know what you're gonna get until they pop out--but they're all nice.

That's the way I look at it. I never met a Columbine I didn't like.