Aquilegia Music Pink and White - Columbine

Aquilegia Music Pink and White is a small romantic columbine, ideal for decorating rockeries, and borders, flower pots and containers. During May and June, it bears floral spikes with beautiful flowers composed of a corolla of pink-purple petals surrounding a white calyx with a pink base. The pink and white colours are well-marked. This variety prefers shade and will also thrive in woodland, at the base of bushes or under hedges, in light and moist soil.

The Music Pink and White columbine is a recent horticultural hybrid, derived in particular from Aquilegia caerulea, with large open flowers carried straight on the stem. These plants belong to the buttercup family. This columbine grows rapidly to form an upright clump 45 cm (18in) high and 40 cm (16in) wide when in flower. Delicate pink and white flowers bloom with beautiful dense foliage cushions for several weeks from the end of April or the beginning of May. Against the typical grey-green foliage this lilac-pink appears almost luminous due to the slightly translucent texture of the petals.

Columbines are beautiful and essential perennials, the lightness of the foliage and the original shape of the flowers have seduced many gardeners. They are perfect for brightening up slightly shaded areas in flower beds. The different shapes, sizes, and colours allow for unique combinations with other perennials.

Planted next to spring bulbs, the Music pink and White columbine will hide the withered and yellowing leaves at the end of spring. At the base of bushes, it enhances their flowers or foliage. It will also thrive in a cool and shaded rockery with bergenia, Saxifraga, or creeping bugleweed. It also creates beautiful containers with lobelias and nemophila. Its flowers are very romantic in bouquets.

Be careful to separate the columbines from each other, wild hybridization can alter the varieties over time.