Description
A rare plant confined exclusively to the Californian Redwood forests of western USA.
This has wide green leaves mottled with black. Between each leaf pair are several flowers. Each is an intricate three-petalled construction. The base shade is olive toning to light green, striped all over with fine purple lines, so much so that the eye sees black. Three anthers sit in the gaps between the petals. Above that, set at an angle, on a short orange stalk, is a three-branched style. The flower smells gently (not obtrusively) of wet dogs, of you want to get down on your knees in the garden, you need to do this as the smell is local to the flowers and doesn’t carry far, it is a curiosity rather than a demerit.
Small but tough and excellent in a peat garden, a humus-rich spot in light shade or in a pan under glass. Flowering is very early, from December to March, so we do stress that early ordering is best. When we have the plant, which is slow from seed and offered infrequently only.
