Found this beauty on the Texas Superstar Plants website (TAMU Ag)...
listed as hardy to zone 5 (??) on the database description, but a linked article on TX Gold states that it should do fine everywhere in the state except for the Panhandle & Rio Grande Valley... huh? This columbine is listed as a good source of color in shady areas (which I have a lot of) - has anyone had any experience with this? I love columbines, this native looks fantastic!
http://www.texassuperstar.com/plants.html
"TX Gold" Columbine - in Houston?
I don't know about Houston, but it does fantastic here NW of San Antonio. I just love it when they're blooming every spring and then there's that nice foliage the rest of the time! Mine are in dappled shade to part sun and they're doing fine!
You betcha; it does great in Houston...I got about 20 plants and am starting seeds again this fall for more. One of my favorite natives.It likes it best under a deciduous tree where it gets full sun in winter and dappled shade in summer.
Debbie
KCad--if you have trouble finding them, I'll grow you a lot in the fall for early spring planting. Got a bunch of seed here.
Debbie
Debbie,
My daughter just gave me tons of seeds from hers. Do I start them now or wait?
thanks,
April
April--
Last year I started seeds outside in small plastic plugs on October 23rd (had to go get journal to check dates) and potted them up to those, I guess 4 x 4 square pots in November. They grew, outside, full sun in those 4 x 4 pots until early spring when they REALLY took off and I put them in the ground. I had limited seed from a school garden I had built at the school I used to work at. But I knew they were Aquilia chrysthaim 'Hincley's Yellow' because I got 3 original parent plants from TreeSearch. They were really easy to grow and germinated like crazy. I waited until fall last year in case they needed stratification to germinate because I had limited seeds. I know have bunches of them all over my garden. I love that plant.
At the fall RU I got some more seeds (a ton of them) and am going to try some real soon and see how they do. I'm also going to save a lot for fall and then next spring I'll have a ton of plants to give away.
I just love columbines since I spent so much time growing up in Montana and Wyoming. The red, native Aquilia canadensis also grows well down here over the winter and reseeds. But I hear the two will cross is why I've avoided growing the red native (just not native to Texas) variety until I get alot of Hinckley's going and a good seed supply. The Hickley's are rather short lived perennial (3-4 years). So will need to be replanted. I'll start some with you and we can compare notres on summer sowing with that plant.
If it works, they should be big enough plants to bloom next spring. Mine did not bloom starting them so late in the fall but I know they will next spring because the plants are huge (well for them, anyway) now.
Debbie
PS...I'm also starting some pink and red varieties of native perennial winecups as soon as school is out.
Thanks for the info.
I have pink wine cup growing in one of my beds. Hope you have LOTS of room, those suckers GROW!
Tell me when you start to sow the Hickley's.
April