Color can range from red to chocolate, milk-white to mauve, clearest blue to deepest royal purple. Combinations of colors such as red on the outside of the petals and yellow on the inside are found in the species Aquilegia canadensis. The Rocky Mountain columbine, A. caerulea, has true-blue sepals and spurs, with white blades.
The graceful foliage can vary in color from a deep green to a whitish or bluish green, and there are variegated forms.
One of the very few pests to bother columbines is the Leafminer (Liniomyza species). Their adult lives are spent as flies with a dedication to laying eggs on their favorite plants. Many species are very specific as to their chosen incubators for the young. A few gaily spread their prodigy any place convenient. Everyone knows that fly eggs hatch into yucky maggots. The young larvae, a polite term for maggot, proceed to spend their lives just under the surface of the leaves gorging themselves. Each chomp leads to the next, forming a tunnel for their bodies to follow the mouth up front doing the chomping. Those tunnels appear as unsightly yellowish-white patterns on the green leaf surface. The crazy-quilt patterns only result in unsightly foliage with no life-threatening damage to the columbine. The maggots seem to have no sense of direction other than hunger, so the patterns are in loops and semi-circles, cross and re-crossing in the middle of each leaf. I have noticed that leafminers tend to avoid the outer edges of the leaf.
The best means of control for leafminers is to pick the unsightly foliage and discard it in the garbage can for removal. However, over time, and with diligent observation I have worked out a more personally satisfying and rewarding method of leafminer extermination.
Equipment required is simple, cheap and effective on several levels. The three tools required are one magnifying glass, a pair of fine tweezers, and one set of ear-plugs. You will need the magnifying glass, or a good loupe, to locate the maggot in its tunnel and to see the details of his mining equipment for tunneling. Once you have located and have a good view of the larvae you will be able to see the tiny miners lamp locate above the mouth. Take the tweezers and remove the miner's lamp.
Without the lamp the leafminer is blind, but must continue feeding. If you are squeamish to the pain of other beings, now is the time to insert your ear-plugs, or remove yourself some distance from the plant. Once the miner's lamp is removed, only a short time elapses before the maggot tunnels blindly over the edge of the leaf, falling to its death.
Those tiny screams of the falling leafminer may cause sleepless nights in some, but I find that pay-backs can be highly satisfying in gardening, as with the rest of life.