Description
Slim elegant growths with deep purple, chocolate chequered, hanging bells. Sometimes said to resemble a brown version of thunbergii but this plant is far better than that comparison implies. The leaves are thin and coiling, by which means the plant supports itself, clinging to larger plants and shrubs. In F. ussuriensis the uppermost leaves, still narrow, form a coiling, curled tuft of almost tendril-like foliage.
Damp peaty soil in light- or half-shade. This does like it cooler, damper and shadier than many species, though that doesn’t mean grow it in a cold, shaded, bog garden! It makes some bulblets around the parents, but not the abundant, tiny rice grains of the USA species. Deep planting will discourage too many of these from forming and will make those that do form, larger in individual size.
Spread across cooler regions of Russia, China and Korea though never common.
Slow to make size and even then perfectly flowering-sized bulbs are not huge. We can only offer this once every few years, in limited numbers.
