Aquilegia (Columbine) Aquilegia 'Mellow Yellow' From BBC Gardener's World magazine The recent revival in cottage gardening has led to increased interest in cottage garden flowers and along with pinks, foxgloves and old roses, more and more gardeners are growing columbines - or aquilegias as they are now more often known. The columbine, in its many forms, was one of the first wild flowers to be brought into gardens and from the start it had the happy knack of producing new and different forms. As early as the seventeenth century three different double-flowered forms were grown, but the first aquilegia with coloured foliage was seen at the Royal Horticultural Society trials of 1914. Called 'Vervaeneana', the group name by which these plants are still known, it was described as having its leaves mottled with yellow and with double blue or purple flowers; it came about 60% true from seed. The difficulty in developing a true stock seems to have prevented its wide distribution but in recent years this problem has been solved. 'Woodside' was the first of more recent developments in this field. Devon gardener Mervyn Feesey, who has raised a number of good plants, introduced a well-mottled form with pink or purple flowers in the mid 1980s and named it after his garden near Barnstaple. A form with white flowers and mottled leaves is known as 'Graham Iddon' but two more spectacular developments have taken place more recently. In 1995 Thompson & Morgan introduced a form which they call 'Woodside Variegated Mixed', with single and double flowers in a wide range of blues, pinks, purples and white. And although the foliage of most plants is mottled, a few are have leaves of pure deep yellow. This tendency to produce occasional all-yellow plants has been noticed for many years and at Plant World in Devon, Ray Brown has capitalised on this tendency to develop 'Mellow Yellow'. He stabilised the foliage colour to pure deep yellow but the flower colour is restricted to white or very pale blue.   I've found that 'Mellow Yellow' is the more satisfactory of the two plants as the colour of both flowers and foliage is more dependable and that glowing deep yellow of the rounded mound of foliage is really gorgeous. The flowers open in summer on stems about 3ft/90cm high. 'Mellow Yellow' can be planted directly in a mixed or herbaceous border but I've found another excellent use, as a foliage plant for summer containers. Raised like a half-hardy bedding plant, in the rich conditions of a large tub it produces masses of lovely leaves and no flowers. At the end of the season the plant can be set out in the garden to flower the following year. In the garden Seed of 'Mellow Yellow' can be sown in March in a propagator with other summer bedding plants. Prick the seedlings out into trays then move them on into individual 3in/7.5cm pots as growth develops. Harden them off then plant them into large tubs or into summer bedding schemes at the end of May or early June. Grown in this way the deep yellow foliage looks superb with the yellow daisies of Bidens 'Golden Goddess', the chocolate coloured (and chocolate scented) flowers of Cosmos atrosanguineus or deep red or deep purple petunias. At the end of the bedding season move the plants into more permanent positions in beds or borders. The alternative is to sow later, in June, when all the bedding has been moved out of the greenhouse. There will be no need for a heated propagator, in fact seed and seedlings may need shade from the hot sun. Move the seedlings on in the same way then plant out in early autumn for flowering early the following summer. Like most columbines, 'Mellow Yellow' enjoys any reasonably fertile soil in dappled shade and can also be grown in full sun as long as the soil does not dry out. It looks good with ferns and bergenias, under the front of purple-leaved shrubs or in a gold and yellow border where the flowers can be snipped off to preserve the colour theme. First published in BBC Gardener's World magazine, March 1997. Aquilegia A-Z ©copyright 1998 Graham Rice. All Rights Reserved. All Images Digitally Watermarked.