Aquilegia Advice Needed

hathor

Hi All

I have some Aquilegia caerulea "Mrs Scott-Elliott" growing in pots in a sunny spot. They have been flowering for a few weeks now and looked very pretty - rather exotic, I thought.

I was under the impression that flowering would continue through the summer, but they seem to be setting seed already. I must confess that I haven't dead-headed or cut any flowers, so I suppose it could be my own fault.

Is it usual that flowering should come to an end so early?
Should I attempt to dead-head them now, although that would mean removing the green seed pods?
Is it too late for dead-heading and because of my inaction that's it for flowering this year?

All comments welcome, as I am very much a newbie gardener. Although the plot is south-facing, it's basically a builder's yard (think mounds of rubble and stacks of materials awaiting use in the house refurb) so all I have is pots and a bit of vertical gardening on some leftover rebar to help me to get started and learn.

TheGardener

If they are setting seed pods - then they are done flowering for now - unless you want zillions of baby ones - I would remove the seed heads (dead heading) and bin them as they can be quite invasive. They might get a 2nd wind later in the year but they are not normally repeat flowering.
They have deep tap roots and I've never had any success growing them in pots though as they like moist soil. As the self seed freely - I usually have several at various stages of maturity and one or another of them is usually in flower though early summer.
There's a good selection of plants perhaps better suited for containers here http://www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/right-plant/vid.274/

ERICS_MUM

As you don't seem to have established flower beds that you want to keep neat and well stocked, I'd be inclined to leave the pods and let them set seed. I love the leaves of the young plants even before they flower. If you want to clear and start a new bed then I'd say get rid.

Linda32

You have not done anything wrong, they do go over about now

Davesnave

Aquilegias don't make very good long-term container plants. They are safer from vine weevils in a garden bed, where they put on a good display in spring.

Then, they need cutting back a bit to remove all the seeds, or just most of them, if you want them to seed around.

Seedlings will be Heinz57 and you should pull up any you think are drab as soon as they flower. That's the only way to keep a good mix vibrant. Otherwise, they will revert to various shades of mucky pink etc etc which is what you see in long-established, untended groups.

Of course, if you like mucky pinks and dull blues, that's different. Some people think the sharper colours are a tad vulgar.

Edit: They will do fine in a builder's yard.

hathor

Thanks everybody for sharing your knowledge. Good to know that it's not my neglect that has caused them to finish early!
There's not much point in letting them scatter the seed as it can't germinate, so they'll be getting a tidy-up haircut this afternoon. I also take the point that they won't come true from seed, so no need to let the seed mature for saving for next year.
If they are not so good for pots, I seem to have been lucky. This is their second year (I bought them as plugs from an offer of perennials last year) and they were really pretty when they flowered. I hadn't seen them before and had forgotten what the original pictures were like from when I ordered the plugs, so they were a lovely surprise. I'm mainly trying edibles, but have put in a few flowers to attract the bees. I might try putting them in bigger/deeper pots later on to try and help them keep going next year.
Thanks again.

tootallulah

I didn't know they all ended up dirty pink, I've got a lot of those this year, will pull them up!

Davesnave

tootallulah wrote: »

I didn't know they all ended up dirty pink, I've got a lot of those this year, will pull them up!

No, they don't all end up dirty pink, but if you fail to remove the seedlings that do, then over time the drab colours will begin to predominate.

I kept bright aquilegias in my last garden for around 10 years, just by taking out the murkier ones.

Sometimes there's an interesting variation. After 6 or 7 years in my current garden, a plain while clematiflora variety has started to produce some gold variegated seedlings. No idea what these will be like as flowers, because they are weaker and only one has reached a viable size so far.

tootallulah

Mine were seeding so I have pulled out all the pink ones and left in the brights and the William Guinness - thanks for the tip, it also opened up a lot of space for planting out my zinnias, cleomes and dahlias. Only got about 100 plants of various sorts left now and I am just going to shove them into spaces....not a very planned way of gardening. Hopefully in a month it will just be a messy blaze of colour, that will be job done.

Davesnave

Our back garden is a unplanned muddle, because it's only temporary. The 'proper' garden has had drains dug in it and builders piling up scaffolding, rubble etc for some years, so we've had to garden on a former field area that holds two massive septic tanks.

As you say, it all looks colourful in summer, when the lack of structure doesn't matter too much. We can't plant really large shrubs or trees over the septic tanks; just around the edges of the plot.

http://imgur.com/a/XthK8

The aquilegias in the area shown are mostly semiaquilegia doubles and they're consistently maroon. They don't seem to hybridise with the others we have elsewhere. We do have aquilegia skinneri somewhere in this bit too, which also seeds true, but I can't see it. It's red & yellow.

tootallulah

That is absolutely beautiful, on the whole whatever happens it is enjoyable to grow your own garden.....one day I will make a plan but I am not good at the pulling out of things in the wrong place. Maybe next year!