Pruning Aquilegia

We are now into the main flowering season for perennial plants, which means you can take the snippers to those much-appreciated plants that bridged the gap from bulb season to now.

Aquilegia, also known as Granny’s Bonnet and Columbine, provides flowers in all sorts of colours in late spring, but it is likely yours is now running out of blooms. They are good self-seeders, so leave them for now if you are keen to bulk up your collection – although note the seedlings often don’t have the same colour flowers as their parents.

If you are keen for a tidy up, be bold and chop the old leaves as well as the stems as this will stimulate fresh new growth. The picture on the far right is one cut back hard a few weeks earlier!