Columbine (Texas Gold)
Aquilegia chrysantha var. hinckleyana 'Texas Gold'
- Sun
- Full Sun, Part Shade, Shade
- Water
- Moderate, Drought tolerant once established
- Mature size
- 1.5–2.5 ft tall, 1.5–2.5 ft wide
- Best for
- Pollinator Plant, Hummingbird attractor, Shade garden, Native ecosystem plant
Gallon — $10
About this size
- Gallon
- Our standard size: a 1-gallon nursery pot, about 6–7 inches across.
Pay at the nursery, plus 6.75% sales tax. Send your request and we'll confirm availability and your pickup time within 24 hours, then hold your plants. How it works
Planting & care
- Growth habit
- Bushy, clump-forming perennial with fern-like, ternately divided foliage and slender arching flower stems
- Typical bloom
- Apr–Jun
- Cold hardy to
- Zones 4–8
- Soil
- Tolerates a wide range of soils — clay, loam, sand — with a preference for slightly alkaline conditions and good drainage
Where to plant
Full sun to part shade to shade — the most flexible of the natives on light, though afternoon shade keeps the foliage looking its best through a Texas summer. It's adaptable to clay, loam, or sandy soil, with a preference for slightly alkaline, well-drained conditions.
Watering
Keep it consistently moist while establishing. It's drought tolerant once rooted in, but appreciates occasional deep watering during hot, dry stretches.
Cutting back
Deadhead to keep it tidy, or leave some flowers to go to seed if you want it to self-sow. Shear tired mid-summer foliage back to the crown to encourage a fresh flush of leaves.
About Columbine (Texas Gold)
For anyone who thinks their shady yard can't have flowers, Texas Gold Columbine proves them wrong. Delicate, fern-like blue-green foliage forms a graceful mound, and from April through June it sends up slender, arching stems topped with nodding golden-yellow flowers trailing long, curving spurs — a shape hummingbirds are drawn to instantly, and one that carries a light, pleasant fragrance up close.
This columbine is a true Texas original, found wild in just one canyon in the Big Bend region, yet it adapts easily to gardens across a much wider range. Unlike most of the sun-loving natives in a typical Texas landscape, it actually prefers a little afternoon shade, and its foliage stays fresh and attractive well beyond the bloom window when sited well.
It also does quiet ecological work: the flowers are a larval host for the Columbine Duskywing butterfly, and a strong nectar source for hummingbirds and other pollinators moving through in spring. Left undeadheaded, it self-seeds gently, filling in a woodland-edge planting over time.
For the shaded, north-facing bed that's been sitting empty, or the woodland garden that needs a little gold, this columbine is one of the most rewarding native perennials available.
Where it's native
Columbine (Texas Gold) occurs naturally in one Texas ecoregion — Trans-Pecos. Plants grown from local ecotypes are best adapted to our soils and climate here in the blackland prairie and post oak savannah.
- 1Trans-Pecos
- 2High Plains
- 3Rolling Plains
- 4Edwards Plateau
- 5Cross Timbers and Prairies
- 6South Texas Plains
- 7Blackland Prairies
- 8Post Oak Savannah
- 9Gulf Prairies and Marshes
- 10Pineywoods
