SO, why do many of us love aquilegias? First, there’s the complete rainbow of colours, including green, not to mention pure white and almost genuine black. Some are what’s known as ‘selfs’, all the parts in the flower the same colour, but there are many with bicoloured flowers.
The double-flowered forms are among the most tempting, and they come in three types: the starry stellata or clematiflora types, with flowers like those of double clematis. Then there is the Barlow Series, based on the favourite ‘Nora Barlow’, which has flowers packed with slender petals. And finally there are those simply known as doubles, flore-pleno or pleated, with one flower set inside another. All except the stellata and Barlow types have curved spurs filled with nectar. But, confusingly, all those with…