PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Aquilegia (Granny's Bonnet)
Aquilegia vulgaris
🌸 Flower
🔁 Perennial
Nodding, spurred bonnets in purple, pink, white and blue in late spring, over pretty, fern-like leaves. Self-seeds into lovely new colours.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Flowers
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Aquilegia (Granny's Bonnet): what it needs
- Light
- Part shade · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water well until established, then in dry spells
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 30 cm
- Height
- 60 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- A little general feed in spring
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 3–9
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant at the same depth as it was in its pot, 30 cm apart, and firm in.
- 0–1 days after “Plant”
Water In Well
Give a full can of water, then keep moist for the first few weeks while roots establish.
- 7–14 days after “Water In Well”
Mulch Around the Base
Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plant, keeping it off the stems.
Every year
- MayIn Flower
Granny's bonnets in flower — bumblebees love them.
- JuneTrim After Flowering
Cut flowered stems to the base once they fade (leave a few if you want seedlings) and remove mildewed leaves; fresh leaves soon follow.
