I had one columbine almost-volunteer. I had tried a few seed packets here and there very early in my gardening career, and didn't see anything (through the weeds, sometimes).
A few years later, this columbine made himself obvious, and has come back for around 3 years since then. (I do have a few other columbine survivors, maybe "giants", with very prissy and delicate pale blooms. I like this chocolate-purple one better.)
It has dusky purple-chocolate blooms, in kind of a two-tier format. First a "top-knot" of blooms appear on some stalks that stick up above the foliage (2-3 feet tall?) Then, a few weeks or a month later, more blooms appear down-low.
I'm fairly sure it came from Burpee's "Harlequin" Mixed colors, C. vulgaris. I may have seeds from prior years, but seem to recall losing them one year. I could save some from this year if anyone's interested in a mostly-no-ID Columbine.
