Mountain Avens

Today's the day …………………… to introduce

As far as I'm concerned, a garden is not complete until you have one of these growing in it somewhere.

There weren't any when we came here but I'm pleased to tell you that there is now - and it's just burst into flower.  You would normally find it growing on limestone in arctic-alpine regions of the world. In Great Britain it occurs in the Pennines, at two locations in Snowdonia and more widely in the Scottish Highlands; in Ireland it occurs on The Burren and a few other sites.

 Apparently it is Iceland's national flower. Its posh name is Dryas octopetala which comes from the Greek octo (eight) and petalon (petal), referring to the eight petals of the flower.  And then when the delicate, eight-petalled flowers have finished, there will all those crazy, bad-hair-day, seed pods to delight us still further.

I'll probably have to blip it again then ……………………...