Townsendia Rothrockii

This rare high alpine flower is endemic to Colorado in the USA where it lives in the snow-melt area. Here it makes low, tight cushions of thick, glabrous, slightly hairy leaves, with golden-eyed blue flowers that hug the cushion, opening on the shortest possible stems. This gem is more easily grown in the rock garden than T. hookeri, and it needs good drainage. But to obtain a prize-winning specimen for a show it will do best in the alpine house. Few good seeds collected.