FLASH SALES: discover new special offers every week!
Columbine: 5 ideas for successful plant pairings

Columbine: 5 ideas for successful plant pairings

Plant pairings for garden or in pots!

Contents

Modified the Wednesday 13 August 2025  by Virginie D. 3 min.

Columbines (Aquilegia) are perennial plants with generous spring flowering, essential for bringing a natural look and lightness to borders and even in pots. Easy to combine, they offer a varied palette of colours and different shapes. Their foliage is also decorative and adds an interesting graphic touch.

They are really easy-to-grow, hardy and robust plants, ideal for beginners and perfect for filling gaps in borders or disguising yellowing foliage of early bulbs. Discover our ideas and inspiration for pairing columbines!

Difficulty

Columbine in a romantic or country setting

Garden columbines, especially double forms and the famous “Granny’s Bonnet”, lend themselves well to charming, romantic settings. Pair them with English roses with very double, pastel-coloured flowers or with peonies. They work very well together. Add perennials (alchemilla, bellflowers, hardy geraniums, euphorbias, catmint, salvias, poppies, etc.) and ornamental alliums or camassia bulbs.

You can also use them to complement flowering in front of bushes that are in bloom at the same time such as Mexican orange blossom, Van Houtte spirea, lilacs, certain viburnums (‘Mariesii’, ‘Watanabe’…), camellias, etc.

Columbine in a naturalistic border

Columbines are delicate, light flowers, which makes them easy to include in a naturalistic planting. Especially since this kind of planting is often a bit bare in spring. Choose columbines that aren’t too sophisticated, such as Aquilegia vulgaris, and let them self-seed as they wish to reinforce the natural look. Pair them with grasses such as evergreen Carex and other naturally appearing plants with spring flowering (hardy geraniums, mulleins, buglosses, Baptisia, centauries…) or spring bulbs (Alliums, Camassia, fritillaries…).

Finally, you can also create a colour gradient (various shades of blue or pink) by pairing columbines together.

Discover other Aquilegia

Columbine for rock gardens

Certain species are ideal in a cool rockery: A. alpina, A. canadensis, A. chrysantha, A. atrata. Combine them with plants that prefer sunny, free-draining conditions while retaining a little moisture. You will find suitable choices among basket-of-gold, small campanulas, mountain sandworts, moss phlox, saxifrages, euphorbias, etc.

pairing columbines

A rockery planting idea: Aquilegia alpina, Cheilanthes lanosa, Saxifraga arendsii (‘Pixie’ or other), Campanula poscharskyana ‘Stella’, Arenaria montana and Festuca glauca

Columbines in the understorey

Comfortable in light woodland, columbines tolerate root competition well and create pretty, fresh and colourful displays in partial shade. In that case, plant them with ferns, hostas, heucheras and other perennial plants typical of shady spots. Remember to favour light colours to bring light and contrast to the medium of this cloak of foliage.

pairing columbines

An understorey planting idea: Aquilegia ‘Snow Queen’ (or ‘Green Apples’, ‘Clementine White’, ‘White Barlow’ or ‘Munstead White’), Geranium phaeum ‘Album’, Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’, Hosta ‘Halcyon’ (or any other hosta would be perfectly suitable), Digitalis lutea and Matteuccia pensylvanica (or struthiopteris)

...or in a pot

If you only have a terrace or even a balcony, you can grow small columbines in pots. Just ensure the growing medium is rich, light and well drained. It should also remain cool, especially during prolonged dry spells. For an attractive display, pair these dwarf columbines with perennials with decorative foliage such as Brunneras, which will also produce delicate little forget-me-not flowers.

Also consider Bergenias, autumn biennials (violets and pansies, daisies, primroses) and tulips, of course.

It is possible to replace the Muehlenbeckia with a small variegated ivy such as the ‘Glacier’ variety; that will look very pretty too.

Finally, place this composition in partial shade.

Comments