what are these please?

[Playduh]

Thank you!

[traviata]

Aquilegias, otherwise called 'granny's bonnets'

[GreenMarkerPen]

no idea
but I have them too.
they self seed and the bees like them.

[Playduh]

Thanks. They're all over the garden in about six different colours. Want to keep them but if I do, will I be drowning in them soon?

[ShowOfHands]

They like to spread and will reseed on their own but they're easy to strip out if you get too many.

[GrassyBottom]

I have lots but I just pull them out when I get too many. Also I have one bed with just deep blue ones. If I see a pink one in there it comes out .

[shovetheholly]

If you don't want them to spread too much, make sure they don't set seed. However, this may also stop you getting new and different colours - they hybridize like nothing on earth and the results can be spectacular.

There are specially bred ornamental ones too. I have Nora Barlow in my garden, which is a very different flower shape - you could mistake it for a seed head of some kind if it wasn't so pink!

Check out the Touchwood Seed website for other amazing varieties. What has happened to that amazing plantswoman is so sad - she holds a huge collection of aquilegias (the national collection, in fact), but they have got downy mildew and she has lost hundreds of plants. I cannot even imagine how heartbreaking that must be.

[Playduh]

Oh wow. They seem to like it round the bottom of my laurel trees. It would be lovely if I could get a range of colours in each bed.

Thankyou!

[amysmummy12345]

aqueligias! we've had them self seed all over the lawn :/ any ideas how to eradicate without having to dig each one out?