While its name does little to conjure a pleasing image, this demure perennial's charm is easily conveyed. Populating the cool, moist streamsides and woodlands of Japan and northern China and closely akin to the Primula genus, Cortusa makes a pretty detail in a shady rock garden.

The dainty umbels are poised on 9 in. stems, spotlighting pendant, bell-shaped rosy purple flowers with white-ringed centers above a low growing, downy soft clump of broadly rounded, incised leaves.

Blooms April–June

Size: 9" high x 10" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.