Columbine in the Rain

The very first columbine flower this year embellished with tiny beads of rain.

At one time I had wild and hybrid columbines all over my yard and I love them, such a complicated flower but so delicate. This one is a descendant of ones that grew in my mother’s yard that were a variety of pinks and violets. The wild ones were a smaller red flower and a taller indigo blue.

After the deer moved in almost a decade ago they grazed on everything and the plants would sprout but never have a chance to bloom. What the deer didn’t eat the groundhog did, until the plants simply disappeared. But I discovered one plant in an overgrown section of my garden and transplanted it to another spot so I wouldn’t till it under by mistake. It came up for the past two years but never bloomed and I couldn’t figure out why.

This year, no deer, no groundhogs, good fences. The flower spike sprouted and continued to grow and now there are flowers. It’s likely either the groundhog ate the nascent flower spike, or the deer nipped it off before it was tall enough to see.

I have seeds for some other columbines that I saved from several years ago. I hope a few of them will sprout, grow and bloom!

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