How have I waited so long to give tribute to Brazen Hussy? I bought this plant at least twenty years ago when we were still adding things to our woodland garden. The name was irresistible to me. Later, I found out the plant was introduced by my favority gardening writer, Christopher Lloyd. It is a dark-leaved buttercup with attractive early spring flowers. It could be a maleficent marauder in the right conditions. For us, it spread a bit the first few years and then slowed down. It is possible it has fully died out at this time. For us, it was also a spring ephemeral–coming up in late winter, blooming, and then disappearing by summer.

Future plans for this plant will be to carry out an “Extinct or Alive” search for it in the spring. If, indeed, it is extinct, I will look into purchasing another one–I like where the plant came from almost as much as the plant itself!