Wild Columbine
Aquilegia canadensis
Red-and-yellow blooms nod on wiry stems just as the hummingbirds arrive each spring. Self-sows into easy drifts and grows almost anywhere.
Typically 1 pint–1 gal · $9–$30 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
The first hummingbird flower of spring. timed perfectly to meet the migrating ruby-throats when they arrive.
Wild Columbine is the hummingbird flower. The nodding red-and-yellow spurred blooms hang from wiry stems in April and May at the precise moment ruby-throated hummingbirds arrive from their winter range in Central America. The flower and the bird evolved together, the spur length matched to the bill length. Watch a plant in early May and you'll see hummingbirds hovering at each flower, hovering and moving, hovering and moving, before the plant has barely leafed out around it. The blue-green, fan-shaped foliage is attractive all season. The plant self-sows readily in light shade and woodland edges, naturalizing into informal drifts that feel perfectly placed. It's one of the most adaptable natives available: full sun to part shade, average to dry soil, rocks, slopes, whatever you have. Short-lived as individuals but self-renewing as colonies. You plant it once and it stays.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown wild columbine propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 1–2 ft · 12–18 in wide
- Bloom time
- Early spring
- Bloom color
- Yellow, Red
- USDA zones
- 3–9
- Family
- Ranunculaceae
- Native range
- Eastern North America, from Nova Scotia south to Florida, west to Texas
Care notes for wild columbine.
Plant in full sun to part shade in average to dry, well-drained soil. Adaptable to most conditions except consistently wet. Allow to self-sow. this is how it naturalizes and persists. Remove spent flowers if you want to reduce self-seeding. Individual plants are short-lived (2-4 years) but colonies self-renew indefinitely. Leaf miner damage to foliage is cosmetic only.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside wild columbine.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.