Description
Eranthis pinnatifida makes a small tufted frill of much-divided, purple-bronze tinged leaves below a beautiful pure white flower. The centre of this consists of deep purple to navy-blue anthers surrounded by styles which have bright grapefruit-yellow, waxy tips.
A native of Japanese woodlands and doing well in gently moist, peaty, humus-rich soil in light shade. It has to be said that is not as easy, nor as tolerant, as the more familiar European Eranthis and it is not a plant that you can put out into the open garden and expect to see clumps of. We send them damp-packed – get it into cool, humus rich soil as soon as you can after receipt. Don’t dry it, heat it, bake it and don’t soak it prior to planting, just get it into compost as soon as you can. It will take alpine house conditions but I wouldn’t ever think of it as an alpine subject.
It increases only very slowly (if ever) by offsets and increase is usually by seed, which is a slow process. I repeat, it isn’t a clump-forming species, in addition to which it is very substantially smaller and less self-confident than the yellow species in both its growth and its habit.
Please note that this species has TINY tubers, this is natural, it is a dwarf plant, small in all of its parts – a massive tuber for this one is not even as big as a small sultana. These are however probably flowering sized but do, please be aware that if you order this, you are ordering a Chihuahua when you might be expecting a Great Dane.
