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, Sep 248 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Sep 258 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Sep 268 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.
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