Description
A scarce and lovely form with rich blue flowers in which the inner whorl of anthers and styles has been converted to a double tufted ruff of petals, in the manner of some of the Japanese forms. The intensity of the blue can vary according to cultivation and temperatures. In addition flowers do change considerably as they age, becoming more complex with maturity. In addition, young plants may not show the full doubled effect until they are well established. Stress (poor cultivation, dryness, too much sun, soil impoverishment) can cause a reduction of the number of doubled inner segments, and as with many H. japonica doubles, stress may also promote a reversion of the petalloid anthers to pollen bearing anthers – a boon for the breeder if not a desired character for the gardener. Left alone and not disturbed again, the plants revert to fullness if properly grown and nourished.
A lovely new offering, sold as single-nosed divisions which are of flowering size but which may NOT flower in their first year, that is the nature of the species.
Traced by Michael Myers back as far as Dr Molly Sanderson in Ireland in 1973. She is thought to have introduced it from the garden of Mrs Elison Spence, originally labelled as “flora plena” but it was later named as Elison Spence. It seems to have come to England via the garden of Connie Greenfield and for a short time it was wrongly named after her, this was picked up from a label reading “ex Connie Greenfield”. Somewhere along the line it has also picked up a further wrong name Konnie Grenfield.
