Bergenia ‘Solar Flare’ PP19938

This stunning new cultivar comes from the Netherlands plantsman Marco Van Noort, who found it in 2004 as a mutation on the heat-tolerant B. ‘Herbstblute’. We trialed B. ‘Solar Flare’, waiting for it to expire in our brutally hot and humid summer, but instead it sailed through like a Roger Clemens fastball. In spring, the new foliage is stunning with a wide golden border around each green-centered leaf. In mid-summer, the color fades back to green, but each new flush of growth brings back the variegation. In fall, the foliage takes on a nice purple cast. As if it needed it, the clumps are topped with short spikes of pink flowers in late spring.