Scutellaria alpina

I'm utterly in love with this plant. The attractive foliage forms a low (only a few inches high) spreading carpet (a plant can easily spread to a 12 inch diameter circle in one year) that is topped, pretty much constantly, with short spikes of vaguely snapdragon-like (though ever so much more elegant) flowers, in a beautiful combination of purple and white. Beautiful, of course. But better than that, I put some of these in the garden in the middle of the summer from hell of 2012 when we were routinely hitting 100 degrees and it didn't rain seemingly ever, and these little guys couldn't have cared less. They grew happily and flowered their heads off, laughing at the other plants that were shriveling up and dying. A spectacularly easy, tough, beautiful plant. Happiest and most floriferous in full sun and good drainage, but far from picky and can take quite a bit of shade. Zone 4 -Joseph