What's happened to my aquilegias?

[WPG]

I have quite a large collection of aquilegias in the garden, but I've noticed this year that the dark pink ones have all turned into a pale pink and cream. I'm certain these are the perennials which come up all-pink each year, and not hybrid seedlings. I'm wondering if its possible for an aquilegia to change its colour, and will they ever revert back again?

[Nicos]

Funnily enough I seem to have a lot more pale ones this year!
Have to say I love the colour of yours though!

[ancee]

Mine aren't in flower yet, but seem to decide what colour they want to be every year! I love your ice cream colours though

[Jeanied]

Mine are all pale too - not that I am unhappy with them! One got snapped off by the dog so I put it in a vase - it was green and cream - lovely!

[Scarlet]

Are you sure that it's the same plant? They self seed readily but are promiscuous plants and seedlings very rarely turnout like the parent plant. As Aqualigias are short lived perennials it may just be that your original plant has died and been replaced with a new one.

[meteor]

There have been aqualigias in my garden for decades,they self seed freely and have become a bit of a nuisance in some parts of it.They die off after a couple of seasons but this is never noticeable due to the self replacement by seedlings. I have noticed however over the years that they all have reverted to dark blue or white despite the original colours of purple, red ,wine and various shades of blue and pink.

[WPG]

Thanks for the advice guys - I've taken a closer look and the garden is full of small aquilegia seedlings - probably due to the mild winter, so I'm guessing these are hybrids. They're quite pretty, but all identical in colour.

[Martin H]

One good thing about Aquilegias is that slugs won't go near them.

I wonder sometimes if it's worth planting a ring of the things around my lettuces, but I've never tried it.

[Ja9]

Make your lettuces look nice but might be a bit of a take over! I find the self seeding blue /purple and white ones can be quite thuggish . The delicate colours seem to disappear .yours are very pretty though WPG

[kazmum]

I remember reading somewhere that aquilegia cross pollinates easily, so if you have a few different ones in your garden this maybe whats happened, and why all the colours have changed.