aquilegia downy mildew?

[NotAnEMERGENCY]

Last summer I had quite a few aquilegia flowering. In the autumn I started re-doing my garden/beds and so I dug a lot of little aquilegia plants out, potting them up while waiting for the beds to be revamped.

A lot of the leaves are purple and do not look healthy. I have read horror stories about aquilegia downy mildew on the internet. Is this what my plants have or do they have some other disease?

I don't really have any experience of aquilegia so I don't know what to expect of them. I only actually identified these plants in my garden as aquilegia after they had finished flowering in autumn, from the distinctive leaves. Before then, I hadn't even heard of aquilegia!

I was cutting off any leaves throughout winter as soon as they started looking unhealthy but I have given up now as there seems to be no improvement. Is it worth planting them back into the new bed (when the frosts are over) or would I be better off getting rid of them? I don't want to infect the soil in the bed in case I buy some new aquilegia.

[NotAnEMERGENCY]

This photo is of some aquilegia that I planted in a (different) bed a few weeks ago. They seem to be less purple than the ones still in pots but some of them do still look odd.

[arbrighton]

I've had purple and green leaves on aquilegia and it's always been fine - it's mostly been self seeded and left to its own devices

[sunnyhills]

I'm not qualified to say but they look ok to me .

i've just spent half an hour googling downy mildew on aquilegia. I'd not heard of this new worry . I'll have to check mine tomorrow .Some have self seeded near a wall and they look v mildewd .But I think /hope it's the powdery kind .
This link shows young plants www.touchwoodplants.co.uk/aquilegia-downy-mildew-spring-plants.htm .and yours don't look as tho they have crinkly leaf edges .

Just a thought -I don't suppose your plants could be something other than aquilegia could they ?

[arbrighton]

Definitely aquilegia sunny

[Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Mine look like that, they've been self seeding happily in my garden for years.

[sunnyhills]

Thanks arbrighton,think I'm going a little cross eyed looking at pics of downy mildew on plants

[NotAnEMERGENCY]

This all sounds very reassuring - I'll give them a go in the bed. Thank you!