Polemonium Yezoense 'Purple Rain'

This is a fabulous garden plant discovered here with bright blue flowers above dark purple foliage that deepens in bright sunshine. Our original seed was collected at altitude in Japan where it is already accepted as one of the largest flowered gems of the race, but in 1991, in one tray of seedlings, we were excited to see just one plant with darker foliage which was especially notable in spring when it developed a purple rosette. Subsequent generations retained this feature, a proportion being darker leaved with a few lighter. This new colour break in polemoniums makes this an extremely valuable introduction which has since been produced, (and, ahem, even re-named) by many well-known companies worldwide.