FlowerColumbine
Blue and White Swan Columbine
Blue and White Swan Columbine is a second-year perennial that brings striking elegance to temperate gardens with blooms in deep violet, indigo, and white. This hybrid cultivar grows into dense, robust bushes reaching 18 to 24 inches tall, producing some of the brightest and most vivid flowers available. Hardy from zones 3 through 9 and thriving in full sun, it offers an all-American choice for rustic wooded gardens and mixed borders, flowering reliably once established.
Photo © True Leaf Market
Growing Conditions
USDA Zone
3-9
Sunlight
Full Sun
Growth Stats
TypeBush
Spacing
18
Plant Profile
Sunlight
Full Sun
Water
—
Zones
3-9
Size
?in H x ?in W
Growth
—
Care
Moderate
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Highlights
The blooms combine deep violet and indigo with crisp white in a seasonal display of unusual intensity and clarity. These aren't shy flowers; they arrive with the fullness and vibrancy that makes Blue and White Swan stand apart from other columbine varieties. The plants develop into compact, well-proportioned bushes that look as refined in a cottage garden as they do in informal woodland settings.
Common Uses
Blue and White Swan Columbine is grown primarily as an ornamental flowering perennial for garden borders, woodland settings, and mixed perennial beds. The striking bicolor blooms add vertical interest and focal point color to garden compositions, particularly in rustic or naturalistic landscape designs.
Growing Timeline
No timeline data available yet for this variety.
Care Instructions
Start Indoors
Sow Blue and White Swan Columbine seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your last spring frost. Keep seeds at 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit until germination occurs, then provide bright light and cooler night temperatures (55 to 60 degrees) to prevent leggy growth. Transplant seedlings into individual containers once they develop true leaves.
Transplant Outdoors
Harden off seedlings over 7 to 10 days by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions, then transplant outdoors after the last frost date when soil has warmed to at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Space plants 18 inches apart. Blue and White Swan will establish quickly and develop into flowering-size plants by its second season.
Direct Sow
Direct sow seeds outdoors in fall (2 to 4 weeks before the first frost) for germination the following spring, or in early spring as soon as soil can be worked. Press seeds lightly into moist soil and keep consistently moist until germination.
Pruning
Deadhead spent flowers regularly to encourage extended blooming throughout the season. In late fall or early spring, cut back the entire plant to about 2 inches above ground level once new growth begins to emerge, removing any dead or damaged stems from the previous season.
Growing Calendar
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Companion Planting
Scientific Classification
Aquilegia x hybrida
Growth Habit
Bush
History & Origin
“Blue and White Swan Columbine is a hybrid cultivar within the Aquilegia genus, representing the refined selection work done by modern breeders to develop columbines with exceptional flower color and form. While the exact parentage and development timeline are not documented in available sources, its commercial presence through seed catalogs reflects the broader 20th-century horticultural trend of hybridizing columbines to expand the color palette available to home gardeners. The variety name itself evokes the graceful, distinctive flower spurs characteristic of the genus.”