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The Soldanella are famous for flowering as the snow melts from them, and I didn't think I would be likely to see it happen here. Indeed, it was bright
and dry when it started to flower this year, but then we had a brief snow shower at the start of April. Not enough to create an Arctic landscape, but enough
to snatch a chilly picture for posterity.
Pale purple fringed flowers from tiny mats of rounded leaves in early spring. I bought a plant from Tale Valley Nursery and their label says: "Probably the easiest and most robust of the genus. Frilled bluish/purple flowers over mid green foliage with haired undersides and flower stems. For a moist but well drained soil in a cool position." Writing in the newsletter of the Shade and Woodand Plants Group of the Hardy Plant Society (May 2017), Joe Sime says: "I have tried to grow two or three of the relatively small species of soldanella. They all look pretty similar with a basal rosette of roundish leaves and a central stalk with up to six purple/blue/white flowers. They have lasted for a few years and then are generally out-competed by their neighbours. One of the problems of a big garden is that such little treasures do not get the attention they need to flourish. However, S. villosa, the largest of the genus, is much easier to keep alive and has held its own against encroaching epimediums for 17 years now. It has relatively large leaves up to about 2 ins across and a stem up to 12 ins tall with two to four purplish-blue flowers. For me it does not always flower, but when it does it is worth the wait. It comes from moist woods in the foothills of the Pyrenees and I have it in reliably moist soil in quite dense shade. Perhaps it would flower more regularly with a little more light, and writing this has made me decide to spread it around a little and give it a chance in a better site. " |
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| 25th April 2006 | ||
