Hillside Nursery

There is a bit of a story to this one. The parviflorum var. makasin, aka 'Rita' part of the cross, originally came from the Putney Garden Center in Vermont in the mid 1950s. It spent 35+ years in gardens in Amherst, MA before I was given a division from a gardener named Rita in the early 1990s, and so we have always referred to this very distinct form by her name. 'Rita' is a charming dwarf form of parviflorum var. makasin. I set out to grow more of them and it seems that some insect beat me to the pollination and crossed it with C. candidum, producing a surprise batch of the hybrid andrewsii. Where other andrewsii I've grown tend to come up too fast and then flop over, Rita Alba is compact. It comes up slow and sturdy. Its blooms have creamy white pouches with reddish-brown veining and dark brown sepals and petals. It usually blooms early-mid season.

Zones 3-6. 8-10 in. Light shade, cool moist rich well-drained soil.

Blooming-sized plants.