Aquilegia viridiflora 'Chocolate Soldier'

Aquilegias are a charming, old-fashioned cottage garden plant with bonnet-shaped flowers, often two-tone and with long graceful spurs. Flowering in early summer, they fill the seasonal gap between the last of the spring bulbs and the first of the summer flowers. Self-sown aquilegias look wonderful naturalised amongst shrubs and roses. However, the plants interbreed freely and seedlings rarely resemble the parents. To keep chosen varieties pure, prevent self-seeding by deadheading shortly after flowering.