Care-free perennials: columbine

To achieve that natural, slightly wild floral look, go with a columbine flower. They grow to medium height with spindly stalks and gorgeous, colourful heads, and are incredibly easy to start and maintain.

It's the plant that practically takes care of itself and requires very little care from you. To get started with growing a columbine, follow these really easy tips.

From seed or from seedling

The columbine is such an easy flower to grow, you should have no problems starting from scratch. And once they take off, they'll multiply readily and quickly, giving you a gorgeous garden in no time. Don't get too fussed about when to plant columbine seeds, as they can be put in the ground anytime between the beginning of spring to the middle of summer. You can start them off in little pods, but they take to their natural soil habitat so easily, you don't even have to cover them.

There's only one thing to keep in mind when planting columbines from seeds: you won't see any blooms on them until next year, as they need a full year to establish roots and take off. If you're started with little columbine plants, dig a hole that accommodates the root ball so the top lies exactly at soil level. Keep in mind their mature size and place plants, whether seed, seedling or baby, about a foot or two apart.

Helping columbines get to maturity

Your biggest concern should be with keeping columbines' soil moist, but even that isn't hard to do at all. For the first year while you're helping them get established, keep a close eye on the soil and make sure it always feels moist, not wet. After the first year, you could probably cut down to just once or twice a week, depending on how arid it is. You can also opt to use a water soluble fertilizer if you want your columbines to have a really rich, thick bloom.

While it's not necessary, you can deadhead your columbine to both tidy it up and stimulate new growth. But to get that naturally wild look, let your columbine grow and self-seed. This technique especially helps keep it going for many years, as columbines tend to live for about three or four years. If you take good care of it, then you can get your columbine to the point where it's so big, you can divide it.

Keeping in line with its laidback and almost care-free nature, the columbine is pretty resistant to just about everything. You may run into a problem with leaf miner pests, but you can control them with neem oil and pruning back after bloom.

There aren't many other flowers that are as easygoing as the columbine, nor ones that can rival its natural, wild beauty.