Plant of the Month is the Columbine or Aquilegia caerulea, Akelei in German. It is short-lived but seeds itself freely. Their fine leaves in blueish-grey to reddish-green go well with every other plant; the small hanging, dancing flowers never seek the limelight, but improve most plantings. The plants adapt to many different conditions.
Bees have found a method to get to the nectar without crawling into the depth of the flower: they bite off a piece of one of the five hooks at the top and so can put their nuzzles down more easily and reach the nectar. Many blossoms in our garden have little holes at the end of those hooks... If the Akelei would depend on these bees, she would surely soon die out. Luckily there are enough smaller insects to go in from the proper side, so that the plants get pollinated and can produce seeds every year. And who knows what these little holes are good for? Maybe they provide some ventilation, some fresh air - our blossoms nearly all have these holes towards the end of their life span, but they thrive and produce new cross-breeds in all kinds of colours and varieties every year to please our eyes.
Biting a hole, digging in the proboscis and stealing the nectar ...
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