You'd get more seedlings from non-doubles.

(I started with a variety of columbines, double and single blooms, and I never recall seeing offspring)

Maybe you deadheaded too soon, before the seed pods formed or ripened...? I have gazillions of seedlings here!

I do now have a bunch of intentionally seed grown columbines, the reputation is they greatly self-sow. I hadn't grown them in a long time, till these A. vulgaris I believe. Just a bit ago, I was collecting and flinging seeds in hope that they will self-sow (we shall we).

Mine reseed prolifically! I winter-sowed a variety call Green Apple years ago (ironically with white blooms) and now in spring my gardens are a sea of white. I'm not sure I like them all. On one hand I feel like my beds are becoming a majority of reseeders (columbines, perennial foxgloves, echinacea, campanula, feverfew) but on the other hand it is kind of nice to look out in the spring and see the ribbon of white, kind of like a connecting theme. I also have many in shades of purples and pinks, which I like better.

I do leave the plants alone long enough for the seed to disperse, Sometimes I get sick of the dead stalks and will cut them and lay them around the garden. I'm not sure if the seed still pops out this way or not but I have so many I can't take all the dead stalks lol.

:)
Dee

I just had this discussion on another thread, that I was asking about Columbine. I know I bought specific varieties that I liked, but I can't find any of them. I have let mine self sow for years and I have a ton of them, but, I realized that I don't like the great majority of them. Those that I liked were hybrids and of course the seedlings don't come true to seed. I don't know why the originals are missing either. But the advice I was given, was that letting generations of them continue to self sow, each generation becomes less of what you might like.

So, the solution for me is two fold. I am now ruthlessly removing any Columbine that I really don't like. The whole plant before it has a chance to reseed again this year. I was surprised that I had a few that I kept. Maybe half a dozen. And I will keep doing that with the seedlings. I'll leave them where I want them but remove them after they bloom, if I don't like them.

The other part of it, is I plan on buying the hybrids that I enjoy the most and I guess keep replacing them, if they don't produce seedlings I like.

I bought a gold leaved variety years ago and that has persisted in coming back for years. It really is prolific in reseeding, but I don't remember what the original flower looked like. There is quite a contrast between the two colors of foliage. These are two I am keeping. Not a very showy flower but they're okay and a fairly graceful plant and nice foliage.

I have two that look pretty much identical to that in my ten or so A. vulgaris seedlings. Yes, sometimes blah colors predominate and careful editing should slew the gene pool to what you prefer.

I have a couple in my garden, a blue one that comes back every year in the front yard by the hostas and "Nora Barlow" which grows in the tiny bit of space along the fence that is shared with the neighbour. These ones seem to get hit by the columbine worm so I don't really want it in my flower beds. For some reason, last year the worms didn't show up and the blooms were really nice.

Aquilegia are not very long lived plants....2-4 years is about average. They put a lot of effort into developing seeds so the more you deadhead, the longer the mother plant may last. But then you do miss out on the reseeding.

If you grow a mixed variety or some of the hybrids, there's no telling what any seedlings will look like - they cross pollinate rabidly!! I tend to only grow a single variety, our native western columbine, Aquilegua formosa. Since there are no other kinds in my garden, I let them self sow to their hearts' content as all the seedlings will look the same.