European Columbine

Both single and double Columbine forms were grown in America before 1700, and it is likely that Jefferson had both types since he included "Columbines" in an undated list of cultivated flowers.¹ European columbines have been grown in British gardens since at least the 14th century.² and John Gerard's 1597 description of the double variety still applies: "The flowers hereof be very double, that is to say, many of those little flowers (having the form of birds) are thrust one into the belly of another, some-times blew, often white and otherwhiles of mixt colours."³Philadelphia nurseryman Bernard McMahon listed "Double Columbines, of colours" in his 1804 broadsheet.

This variety is a hardy, spring-flowering perennial with showy, distinctly spurred, double blossoms ranging in color from deep purple and blue to pink and white.

Further Sources

• Leighton, Ann. American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1986
• Stuart, David and James Sutherland, Plants from the Past: Old Flowers for New Gardens London: Penguin Books, 1989
• Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants

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