Description
(mascula ssp. ruprechtiana)
This has foliage which is a very attractive purple-brown when it appears in mid-March along with large purple flower buds.
Once these buds open, the purple has started to fade and the foliage has become a deep, healthy-looking green with purple hints and it sits below flowers of intense crimson, which are borne in abundance, once it is established. After flowering the stems elongate to 35 cm as the foliage fades to green.
A little-known Caucasian endemic species. Our mother stock came originally from Tbilissi (Tiflis) Botanic Gardens in Georgia many years ago.
