This garden plant stopped me in my tracks on my walk to the local park. Purple, silken flowers were lit up by a golden boss of stamens; the foliage throwing a silvery mist into the mix.
I’ve never seen pulsatilla growing wild in the UK, and perhaps I never will. This increasingly rare wildflower must be a magical sight. The young, emerging foliage is covered in long hairs creating a halo effect around the buds.
Its tendency to flower around Easter has inspired the folk names Pasqueflower and anemone of Passiontide.
For more about Pulsatilla vulgaris, check out The Wildlife Trusts’ website, a resource created by 46 independent charities with a shared mission to protect wild places and help people get closer to nature.
To see them growing wild on Therfield Heath, take a look at Frogend dweller’s post.
Shared for Cee’s Flower of the Day.
Susan Rushton 
They are very lovely. I have just bought two – a red and a purple – for my Belfast sink alpine trough.
I was thinking of a post of yours about them growing in the wild as I was writing this – if my memory serves me?
I don’t recall seeing them in the wild, but I do remember some beauties at RHS Wisley.
I wonder who it was then? It was a few years ago now. Perhaps they will post again this year (fingers crossed).
My finger crossing seems to have worked 🙂 – it was Frogend dweller. Sorry for the confusion. I added a link to this year’s post towards the end of mine.
🙂 They are beautiful!
Those sunny centres are enough to make anyone smile!
Gorgeous flowers, so delicate.
They have an ethereal quality, although these flowers looked sturdy enough.
I’ve never seen this before, it’s a stunning plant!
I always look out for them at this time of the year. I tried to grow them years ago on clay but that didn’t work out too well.
I did a post about pulsatilla in 2017 with photos from Dunedin Botanic Garden (NZ), from the rock garden. I’ve just re-checked them because I didn’t recall the purple centres but they are the same in my photos (which also show the silvery mist effect – that fascinated me also.) You’ve captured the vibrant colour beautifully. My old post is at https://exploringcolour.wordpress.com/2017/09/02/pulsatilla-at-dunedin-botanic-garden/
The silvery mist is very strong in your pictures. There is so much going on in this plant that it’s easy to overlook the purple centres. I did that myself – saw them on another picture and rechecked my own.
Haha.. not just me then 🙂
It is a very dark day here, with lots of rain and no sunshine, and when these flowers popped up on my computer screen, they changed this whole room! They are lovely and their folk names give them special meaning, I think. Easter indeed.
I’m sorry about the gloom but happy to have provided a little cheer.
Lovely flowers; and I love the combination of those two colours.
Purple and gold – the colour of kings. 🙂
Beautiful Susan, amazed that they grow wild!
Sadly in just a few chalk and limestone grassland areas these days.
Stunning! They joyfully proclaim, “Happy spring!”
Flowers often show us the way.
They certainly do.
Very pretty. I have never seen this flower before, and I love the foliage.
The foliage is equal to the task of competing with the flower for interest, which says a lot.