Aquilegia chrysantha 'Yellow Queen'

Aquilegia chrysantha 'Yellow Queen' is an outstanding showy cultivar of Golden Columbine. It has large upward-facing fragrant flowers with very elongated spurs that project backwards and recurve outwards. The five yellow petals are surrounded by paler yellow petal-like sepals which have a more pointed shape that the rounded petals. The type species comes from the American Southwest and across the border into northern Mexico and it is one of the most drought-tolerant Aquilegia species and more capable of cultivation in full sun than its more alpine cousins which require a cooler aspect and ideally more shade. Aquilgea chrysantha 'Yellow Queen' makes a fantastic planting companion to purple-flowering plants like Alliums or Irises where the contrast between the yellow and the purple creates vivid and dramatic effects.

Aquilegias are prolific setters of seed and will self-seed everywhere around the garden. This can be moderated by regular dead-heading. The best way to prevent hybridsation and to keep them true to type is to just grow one species of Aquilegia or - if you have a very large property - to grow the different species as far from each other as possible.