We have mentioned before that Columbines easily hybridize with other Columbines. In a nursery you have two possibilities to deal with this problem. Either you do not propagate from seed and get new plants only from cuttings (not easy with Columbines), or you create a socalled `strain` that is propagated by seed. Plants of a strain are similar to eachother but not identic. You could say the strain is on the way to become a variety that comes true from seed, but it hasn`t reached its goal, yet. Strains do change, especially if you keep in your garden other plants of that kind. Vervaeneana Group is such a strain. Its origins are in France, where in a group of ordinary blue columbines suddenly some showed marbelled leaves. At the moment this strain is mainly sold in England, from where we received seed of it.