Astrantia major 'Alba' - 2011

I keep meaning to buy the white one, the trouble is they keep bring more and more new ones out...

I'm growing the three astrantias in my photos together. 'Roma' and this one have done well but I had 'Claret' as the dark one but it was a poor plant and did not flower very much (this is a seed raised variety apparently and I got a 'dud'). Replaced it last year with 'Hadspen Blood' and that's doing much better

This is lovely Andrew! The white one I have is a dreadful colour! I have one other white and it's really a miniture when seen next to the usual sized ones. It was mixed seed from plant world I think? I'll take a photo when the flower opens! The dark ones I have are, 'Abbey Road' 'Gill Richardson' 'Venice' and 'Ruby Wedding' the latter is so far the darkest I've seen. The one called Venice is nowhere near as dark as some photos show it to be especially in plant catalogues!

Helenium - sounds like you have some seed raised white ones. That's why I gave up with 'Claret' - I had a duff one. My book says 'Ruby Wedding' is the darkest of the lot but 'Hadspen Blood' is a strong grower so I'm hoping it will catch up with the other two quickly. Early signs are good

'Hadspens blood' is a good grower, but I think I have enough darks now and would like to try the pinks! The tiny white Astrantia is the only one seed raised, the other white was from a division a few years ago, it also has a not very pleasant smell but it grows really fast and fills space! I took a photo of one of the dark ones (this one has no label) which eventually turns a dirty whitish colour with large green tipped bracts, the flowers are very large, not one I really like! I was hoping another dark one had survived the winter but there is no sign of it, so I think it might be dead, but I'll leave it a while longer!

There was only one seed raised one, and that's the one that looks as if it's a miniature. The other white one was a division but had no label and is a monster of a thing. One clump I have is 4ft x 3ft and that has been divided a few times! I don't know if you've noticed but some of them do have an unpleasant smell! Apparently there is a white Astrantia better than the one called 'Shaggy' it's name is 'Snowstar' now how acurate that info is I don't know as I've never grown it, but that's what the nursery selling it says!

Oooops! Sorry about that Andrew! I thought the first reply had gone walkabout so I wrote another, which as you can see, now makes two!