Aquilegia, Hybrid Columbine, Songbird Columbine 'Blue Jay'

Columbines are easy, short-lived perennials, promiscuous hybridizers and self-sowers.

The Songbird series gets highest pr...Read Moreaise from connoisseurs. However, like the other Songbird cultivars, 'Blue Jay' is an F1 hybrid and will not come true from seed. The offspring are famously inferior.

According to Robert Nold, the Songbird series was created by the late Charles L. Weddle, Jr., of Paonia, CO, by crossing A. coerulea with the McCana's Giant strain and the Dwarf Fairyland series. According to Graham Rice, he also used A. canadensis, A. skinneri, A. californica and A. chrysantha, and perhaps A. longissima.

When he died in 1986 his stocks were bought by PanAmerican Seed, refined and upgraded, and re-introduced in the late 1980s. The series has since been expanded and quietly upgraded over the years under the guidance of breeder Dr Ellen Leue.

'Blue Jay' is dark blue and white, and grows to 30" tall and 18" wide.

The foliage is green to blue-green, not chartreuse or gold.

Columbines prefer slightly alkaline soils, and are especially short-lived where soils are very acid without the addition of lime.

Deadheading is also essential for longer garden life.

The cultivar name is 'Blue Jay'. "Songbird" is the name of the series and not part of the cultivar name.