It looks healthy! I sowed orlaya seeds indoors and ended up with only a few plants. But they come up better outdoors from the few plants I started with. Sometimes they come up in a different spot in my garden. I don't think they reseed themselves very heavily but I'm happy to see new little plants each year. The leaves are pretty, kind of ferny. Seedlings come up pretty early and seem fairly hardy.

@erasmus_gw, thank you! Orlaya’s leaves are indeed very beautiful and I am excited that buds show up so early. There are not many seed sources that carry Orlaya so I plan to collect seeds.

Well you'll surely be blessed with seeds. Seed sellers are very stingy with the seeds, but I can't, for the life of me, figure out why. One plant probably produces 50=100 seeds? Prickly suckers, but plenty of them ;) I love orlaya, dark blue larkspur, and indigo nigella together. So lovely. And easy-three heavy reseeders.

Me too, Rob333. Add in some centaurea (annual) and ox-eye daisy for a simple but lovely, long-lasting bouquet.

@rosaprimula, thanks for new inspiration. they sound great addition

@rob333 (zone 7b),my reply got deleted.

thank you for assuring about reseeding. I fell in love with Orlaya first time seeing it in a friend’s garden in Seattle. I love blue purple larkspur too. I have a lot of seedlings coming up can’t wait to see them bloom in my garden first time! I also love delphiniums, but cannot get even one delphinium seed to germinate.

@rob333 (zone 7b), very charmy scene. Beautiful !

More flower buds are appearing

I was outside planting yesterday when I thought of you. I saw an open bud on a plant. I was like "Yay, flowers!" and then I got closer. It was a confederate violet growing up through my columbine. Admittedly, the aquilegia does have stems popping up, but it's still too soon. It did, in fact, have a bud, but not the one I wanted ;)

We're so close to open buds, aint we?

@rob333 (zone 7b)

Yeah this time of year it is most exciting and anxious. The waiting is coming down to end! I actually like the violet very much and aquilegia is an unbelievable beauty. Your garden will be so pretty in couple or few weeks.

Opening now

So pretty yet very sturdy

Finally blooming

So lovely

Orlaya has set seed pods

Plenty of seeds for next year, hopefully

You see what I mean now? That one umbel (first picture) has what 50-60 seeds alone? But multiply it by how many umbels in the next picture?! I don't understand why seed sellers are so stingy with them ;)

Maybe that is why they give so few seeds. You only need a few seeds and do not need to come back to buy

I meant to tell you, I finally got to see that Columbine blossom. Well they're not stingy with the other seeds, so why Orlaya? Maybe they just don't keep well.

@rob333 (zone 7b), very beautiful Columbine blossom🤩! The color is so lovely.

This spring neither of my 2 Columbine plants (yellow and blue) come back. I should try to grow from seeds next year.

Yes you should! I'm a little biased, I'm a sucker for columbines. There's so much variation. Here are some others blooming on my yard right now.

My absolute favorite, Aquilegia vulgaris 'Barlow Blue'. I'm in love with the mini Dahlia like bloom...

Aquilegia canadensis which is terrific under trees

Well about to bloom

'Magpie' in the US/'William Guinness' in the UK (burgundy and cream)

There are a couple more, but not blooming yet. Check them out, easy to grow from seed, as long as you know they need some sort of cold to break dormancy. Perfect for winter sowing

@rob333 (zone 7b), 'Barlow Blue' is absolutely a beauty. I will surely buy a seed pack and try next year. While surfing the web, I found this Nora Barlow very beautiful too. Thanks for posting🌹

One Aulaya plant is past blooming and is mostlt brown now. However I am not sure whether the seed pods are ready to harvest. I don’t see seeds or am not sure how they look like?

The seeds are clustered in little groups of 5 or so - gently pull those brown, prickly seedheads apart - the single seeds are around 2-3mm and have prickly edges - where they would tangle in the fur of passing animals, ensuring the seeds found a fresh start away from the mother plants.

I will try to find a link to illustrate the seeds.

https://putnamhillnursery.com/product/orlaya-grandiflora/

@rosaprimula UK (Cambridge) Z8/9, thank you so much. I thought those prickly things were empty seed pods but they are actual seeds themselves. Wow aren’t they really prickly!

Now I can pull the brown plant from the bed and I will not need to buy Aulaya seeds from now on

Correct. I told you there'd be a billion. You feel like it's enough for next year?

@rob333 (zone 7b), yeah I feel I have enough for a few years already. Thanks so much