Physochlaina Orientalis

This extremely choice and rare plant, which is quite easy to grow, has sizeable, lavender-pink tubular flowers which open in the stem tips in early spring above compact sprays of attractive, oblong, greyish-green, thick, pubescent leaves, the entire plant going dormant in late summer. It is native of montane, rocky slopes from the Caucasus to the Transcaucasus and Turkey, and makes a bone hardy tuber, doing well in any rich, well drained soil in a sunny spot. Very few good seeds are ever set.