Think of aquilegias and what springs to mind? Cottage garden favourites happily self-seeding in beds, borders and gaps in the paving, blooming from May to July without a care in the world. Granny’s bonnets, columbines - call aquilegias what you will, but they are now under threat.
Carrie Thomas is the Plant Heritage National Collection holder of Aquilegia vulgaris cultivars and hybrids. It was in her small cottage garden in Wales, overflowing with aquilegias, that she first spotted something unusual and troubling.
“Two years ago I noticed some of the leaves on the aquilegias were yellowing, and like a lot of gardeners I put this down to the weather. Mild and wet conditions can make aquilegias look unhappy. I turned a blind eye but that, in retrospect, was the worse thing I could have done. But at the time I didn’t know what was wrong”.
As symptoms worsened Carrie got in touch with the Royal Horticultural Society who diagnosed the disease to be a hitherto unknown downy mildew, specific to aquilegia.
The Telegraph: Killer disease cripples aquilegia collection
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