SOME NEW COLUMBINES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20022, 12 February 1927, Page 3

SOME NEW COLUMBINES.

ITVBTUDTSIXG EXPERTMEXTS AT OTTAWA, mental gardening at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, has supplied the Gardeners’ Chronicle with some interesting l notes on hybridising experiments in aquilegias carried on by her, and those are summarised ns follows: There are few more beautiful plant,-, than the Columbine, particularly the longspurred hybrids which have been popular garden flowers for many years. At the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa. Canada, they have been found to be shortlived, and it was thought they might lack hardiness. This may not be tho only reason, as it has been found during tho past throe years that large numbers of plants have been destroyed by the Aquilegia borer, a grub which eats out tho whole of f the crown, destroying the plant entirely. The work of developing an early-flower-ing, long-spurred strain has not progressed very far. chiefly on account of the borer, which seriously damaged the few seedlings that were obtained by crossing a longspurred hybrid with A. oxysepala. These seedlings were large, handsome plants with blue and flowers which drooped somewhat instead of facing outwards as those of commercial strains do. A few of the second generation have been grown fiom these, and they bloom a little earlier than ordinary strains. Further work will bo carried on hero in the hope of getting bettor results in future generation". T.ong-snurrcd livhrids do not bloom until late in .Time in Ottawa, and it was thought that an early-dowering strain would he desirable. Arptilegia oxysepala is a very earlydowering species with blue, short-spurred dowers in which the petals are tipped with cream, ft has been grown at the farm for a number of years and i= rather dwarf in habit and chiefly desirable because of its earlincss. A eana.den-is. (lie native Columbine or Aquilegia of the Canadian woods, is a very beautiful plant, growing about throe feet high. The foliage is bright green and very ornamental. The dowers are nodding, so that the spurs turn upwards. Tho colour is scarlet and yellow. A cross was made at Ottawa between these two species, and the result is very interest-

ing. All the seedling*, whichever way the cross was made, are so nearly alike in habit and colour of the blooms that one hardly notices the differences. They strongly resemble A. canadensis in habit, shape of flower, and height, so they have boon named A. canadensis hybrids. They come into flower early, and they are very flori ferous. The reddish-purple colour is not ■ltracfix'e to everyone, but when the seeds from these hybrids are soxvn the majority ct the seedlings keep the good habit aivl floriferousness of their parent and give -i great variety of colours, including many shades of pink and purple. These_ hybrid i cannot compare xvith the fine strains xvith long spurs, but they possess a dainty charm of their oxvn xvhich is x'ery attractive in the garden, and as they bloom fully three weeks before commercial strains they lengthen die season of this beautiful floxver. , Another successful cross was made between A. oxysepala and A, flabellata nan a alba, the latter a dwarf plant with shortspurred, white flowers and greyish-green leaves. The seedlings of this cross are not tall and they vary in leafage, some seedlings showing distinctly the greyish colour of A. flabellata. The flowers are large, nodding, and the petals short-spurred, broad and bright violet-blue, edged with cream. The sepals are blue also, so that the white flower is very attractive. In the second generation quite a number come true to colour which is not surprising, as one could not expect any range of colours from this cross. These have been called shortspurred blue hybrids.