Texas Gold columbines shine

You’ll see this plant’s mother growing natively in the Big Bend Country of Brewster County, Southwest Texas. That’s arid terrain, but somehow it has found ponds at the bases of small waterfalls where it could carve out a living.

It’s from those settings Dr. Greg Grant found the plant and subsequently he and Drs. Jerry Parsons and Steve George worked with the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association to improve, produce, market, and distribute the plant.

In ensuing years, Texas Gold columbine has become a mainstream spring perennial in Texas.

Here’s what you’ll need to know…
• Texas Gold columbine is a short-lived perennial (2-3 years), but it reseeds itself freely.
• It needs rich, consistently moist garden soil.
• Plant it in shade or early morning sun with afternoon shade. Think of what you’d give hostas, ferns, summer phlox, hellebores, ajuga, and oxalis and it will do wonderfully right alongside them.
• It grows to 18 to 24 inches tall.

• Its foliage is handsome blue-green, showing up in late fall and early each spring, then gradually dying back a month or two after the plants finish blooming. Spider mites may show up at that time, but they’re really no big problem because the plants go essentially dormant by then anyway.
• Mulch your beds with compost or shredded tree leaves. As seedlings emerge you can easily dig them out and replant them.

That’s all there is to growing this fabulous plant – other than to remember to thank Greg, Jerry and Steve for bringing it to our gardening lives.