Family: Primulaceae
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Common name: Shooting Stars.
This is a generous packet of all of the species that we list. All of them produce heads of attractive flowers on tall stems, which rather resemble small cyclamen, to which they are related. They are spring and early summer blooming, after which the leaves die away and the plant retreats underground for the summer. Dodecatheon actually means "12 gods", and there is some debate about whether this is a reference to it being a powerful healing medicine under the care of the 12 Olympian gods, or maybe the possibility of having 12 flowers to represent these gods. Who knows? The case rests!
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"Leopard's Bane". In spring, many branching stems of large, bright yellow, daisy flowers appear and are continuously produced for weeks on end. The entire plant spreads very slowly via small tubers and is thus also ideal for the wild garden.
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Family: Cruciferae
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Common name: Alpine Whitlow-grass,
This rather diminutive alpine is a slow growing, mat-forming, semi-evergreen perennial. It has rosettes of small, dark-green leaves and in late spring, bears racemes of fragrant, bright yellow flowers. It is ideal for pan culture or on a small scree or rock-garden.
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This very distinctive species from Spain and the Pyrenees makes a tiny hard rosette of shiny green, toothed foliage with heads of disproportionately large white flowers. A diminutive, cushion-forming alpine which is amongst the earliest of rockery plants to bloom, and can be enjoyed even more closely in a trough. Best in gritty, evenly moist soil and full sun or partial shade.
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From May to July cross-shaped white flowers open on diminutive stalks which in time make up small shiny-leafed cushions. First described in 1802 by Johann Rudolf Suter, it is native to the mountainous regions of the Iberian Peninsula, France, the Apennine Peninsula, Central Europe, eastern Central Europe and the Balkan Peninsula.
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Family: Cruciferae
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Common name: Yellowstone draba
This American draba makes soft cushions of dark green, pointed leaves, above which arise short stems of bright yellow flowers in very early spring.
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Similar to D. borealis but smaller in all its parts. Japan, on inland mountain cliffs.
Loose rosettes with white flowers in early spring. Sun to part shade, gritty, sharply drained soil. Asia Hardy to –30 degrees F Brassicaceae
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Making tiny cushions of pointed, hairy leaves, and bunches of yellow starry flowers on thin stems, this tiny alpine is best-grown either in a pot in an alpine house or on a moist scree.
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Usually densely tufted hummocks consisting of spiny rosettes produce racemes of yellow flowers in early spring. These tiny treasures grow best in full sun in gritty, sharply drained soil such as where they grow in the rocky grasslands in the Eastern Alps, Carpathians and Balkans.
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Tiny, compact rosettes of grey-green slowly multiply to make an impressive dome above which arise, in earliest spring, short stems carrying many small yellow flowers. If kept dry, the foliage of this plant is quite amazing and certainly about as good as you can get in drabas.
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Family: Cruciferae
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Common name: Patagonian Whitlow Grass
From the cold wastes of Patagonia comes this dwarf alpine with short stem bearing snow-white flowers above clumps of tiny pointed leaves.
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Alpine with hairy ovate leaves which form a tight mound or dome, unlike many of its yellow flowered cousins this variety has pure white flowers in spring. A great addition to any rockery or trough.
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This little gem from Mount Parnassus in Greece would be a perfect specimen for a pan or hot trough. Tiny rosettes, much like those of a mossy saxifrage, push up short stems of brightest yellow flowers before almost any other plant awakens.
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An easy-growing draba, making hairy grey mounds of rounded leaves, carrying stemless yellow flowers in early spring. This little gem, that makes a perfect show plant, is native to the mountains of Armenia and also Zigana Dag, Turkey.
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This most unusual, petite plant has beautiful basal rosettes, rather resembling hens-and-chicks sempervivums, and disproportionally large white flowers, in heavy sprays, all above leaves with interesting jagged margins and strongly twisted seed pods. It is native to Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina.
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