Description
This is a species which we have not offered for many years. We discontinued it prior to 1995, when it became obvious that the horticultural stocks available at the time were invariably virused. It has since largely vanished from the mass market, certainly in the healthy state.
We have now propagated a few selected accessions ourselves. These were obtained from a German specialist grower and are grown here under controlled conditions from closed-pollinated seed and by vegetative increase of the original few corms.
This is one of the latest spring species to flower here. As the name implies it has naturally small, honey-scented blooms of light to deep violet. The inners are paler than the outers and are un-feathered, the outers have a buff or cream exterior, marked with deeper violet-purple stripes and feathering.
Cultivation is not difficult, in a well-drained, loam based compost under cold glass or in a sunny, well drained site in the garden, bearing in mind to site it with regard to its diminutive size.
This accession, CO33a, is originally from near Roccapina, in southern Corsica (in 2010) where the plant grows at low altitudes, (149m. in this case) over granite. It is our smallest form, a real little elf of a flower, more than living up to its epithet. The outside of the outer petals, is, as can be seen from our pictures, well marked with purple feathering over a buff ground.
Cultivation is as for our other strains.
