Description
This really is a most unusual Asarum, and when we were offered a few plants in Japan, we had to grab them, even at their astronomical price.
The normal form is esteemed as it flowers in the depths of winter, always before Christmas and continuing to as late as April. The Japanese name for this species, ‘kanaoi‘ translates as “cold wild ginger”. The full name of this double clone is Otome kanaoi, and it is the name for a very rare form, the only double Asarum that I know of and something that I only discovered even existed in 2003.
Not difficult in a well drained, moisture-retentive, lightly shaded leaf soil but slow to increase, extremely rare and likely to remain so for some time.
