Shade Perennial Flower Profile: The Columbine (Aquilegia). The Columbine flower is one of my favorites shade perennial flowers to grow. Their bi-colored blooms come in a wide variety of colors, hummingbirds just love them, and they are suitable for a wide variety of climate zones (from zone two up to zone nine).These shade loving perennial flowers tend to bloom in late spring or early summer for up to a month, and bloom colors can be blue, red, pink , purple, maroon, yellow or white. Depending on the variety, they can tolerate a wide range of shade conditions from full sun to partial shade. They prefer a rich soil, that is moist but also well drained. The best way to propagate these is via seeding, and they tend to self-seed well. Plants generally grow about a foot and a half in height and up to a foot in width.
There are a few downsides to growing columbines, however. Columbines tend to be attractive to certain pests, including leaf miners and caterpillars, so you will want to watch and see how they fare in your shade perennial garden. Also, their blooms are not as long lasting as some other shade perennial flowers (although I believe their beauty makes up for their shortness of blooms).
Some top performing columbine varieties include the Aquilegia canadensis (Canadian columbine) which is one of the earliest columbines to bloom, and the famous Rocky Mountain columbine (Aquilegia caerulea), which has some varieties that are especially long lived.
The columbine is definitely a shade perennial flower you should try in your shade perennial garden. For other great suggestions on shade perennial flowers for your shade garden, you should also read the article Top Five Shade Perennial Garden Flowers or return to the Shade Perennial Garden Home Page and browse through the numerous articles on shade perennial flowers and plants posted there.
Photo Source: KENPEI's photo
