Pulsatilla patens

Pulsatilla patens, also known as Pasqueflower, is often the first plant to bloom after winter in the desolate and extremely cold expanses of Siberia, Northern Europe, and the windswept Great Plains of North America. Discreet yet elegant, this small perennial offers bright lavender bell-shaped flowers with a golden heart, which appear as its foliage emerges from the ground. Later, until summer, it remains decorative with its vegetation entirely covered in silvery bristles, adorned with an equally interesting feathery fruiting. This resilient plant, however, fears competition from its neighbours: give it a place in a sunny alpine rockery, a rocky slope, or a gravel border.

The Pulsatilla patens belongs to the family of ranunculaceae. It is native to meadows, subalpine meadows, tundra, as well as rocky and dry areas in northern Europe, Siberia, and the United States (from Alaska to southern Washington, New Mexico, Texas, and Illinois). Hardy down to -30°C (-22°F), it is a plant that thrives in rocky, well-drained, and calcareous soil with a pH of 7 to 8. Pulsatilla patens is the emblem of the Manitoba region in Canada and the state of South Dakota in the USA.

This is a small herbaceous perennial with a tuberous rootstock of medium growth, forming a tuft 15 cm (6in) tall and 25 cm (10in) wide. It is particularly hairy: covered in remarkable silvery hairs that extends to the leaves, stem, bud, and outer surface of the petals. The floral bud has the appearance of a very hairy sheath of grey-green colour. It blooms into a single flower, forming a cup that may resemble a crocus flower. Each flower is composed of 6 star-shaped petals in mauve-blue colour, arranged around a golden yellow heart filled with stamens. The flowers bloom from March to May, depending on the climate, at the top of velvety and purplish stems adorned with a small collar of finely cut leaves. After flowering, the finely cut and hairy silver foliage emerges from the rootstock. Following the flowering, a fruiting appears in the form of grey-silver plumes, resembling a small shiny wig like some clematis, which will enhance and prolong the interest of the plant.

Pasqueflower strongly prefers cold winters, poor, rocky, and calcareous soils, and sunlight. Plant it in a raised bed enriched with gravel, in a rockery, on a rocky slope, or to border a staircase, in association with small grasses (stipa, fescues), sedums, or botanical narcissus that won't overshadow it or suffocate its rootstock. This plant only opens in the sun and closes at the slightest drop of rain, moving in the wind like a small weather vane waiting for the shower to pass. It will appreciate a partially shaded afternoon exposure in our hottest regions.