Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

If you want hummingbirds in your yard and you don’t want to deal with a fussy plant, then wild columbine is right for you. I have these plants all over the yard, in all sorts of conditions – shade, partial shade, moist soil, dry soil, and they are thriving and flowering like there is no tomorrow. Aquilegia canadensis likes moisture but must be rooted in well drained soil, which is a condition readily found on Cape Cod. As a matter of fact, rich garden soil encourages rank vegetative growth and weak stems and shortens the plants lifespan, while plants in thin, sandy soils maintain a tight, compact habit. Here on Cape Cod, you can plant the wild columbine in full sun. High temperatures (110 and over) will burn leaves and cause the plant to go dormant. These types of temperatures are not something we need to worry much about on the peninsula.

This member of the Ranunculaceae family is an up to 2 feet tall perennial, with showy flowers. A nodding, red and yellow flower with upward spurred petals alternating with spreading, colored sepals and numerous yellow stamens hanging below the petals. The compound leaves, divided into round-lobed threes, provide texture and light play in the woodland garden. Even after the flowers are long gone, the plants keep producing leaves until late fall.

Be careful to plant commercial columbines near Aquilegia canadensis – it will readily hybridize with Aquilegia chrysantha, which has yellow flowers and is a plant native to the Southwestern United States. Unless of course, that is the effect you are looking for. Wild columbine will self-seed in your garden. Although the plant is a perennial and the roots and plant grow bigger over the years, I haven’t found a way to propagate the plant by dividing the root. As far as I know (and I may be wrong), seed, or a garden center carrying this native, are the only means to add more wild columbines to your landscape.

The name Aquilegia refers to an eagle, and if you look at the flower you will see structures that look like eagle talons. The plant also has some culinary use: The flowers can be eaten raw, and they are surprisingly sweet (because of the nectar content most likely). The flowers can be added to mixed salads where they will provide both taste and color. Native Americans used other parts of the plant (seeds, roots) in medicinal ways, but those parts contain toxic compounds and are therefore best avoided.

Scientific name:	Aquilegia canadensis
Common name:	wild columbine
Other name:	wild red columbine, eastern red columbine
Bloom time:	May to June
Color:	red-orange
Light requirements:	sun to shade
Zone:	3 to 8
Soil:	alkaline to circumneutral
Water:	moist to dry
Origin:	eastern US