What is my name??

[Stew Corman]

I planted a bunch of these from a friend who called it a "trout plant". Don't know if it is a wildflower or cultured. Did an exhaustive google search to no avail. It is spring now in midstate NY, so I took my digicam outside and have attached a pic:

supposedly was called a trout plant because of the green leaves speckled with white/cream spots. It is now about six inches high and has two different colored flowers ..blue and light purple.

TIA for a link that defines this pretty perrenial.

Stew Corman from sunny Endicott

[SugarChile]

The link is not available right now, so I can't see the picture, but just from your description it sounds like a pulmonaria. There's lots of different varieties, all of them lovely. I've never heard it called a trout plant, but that could be a regional thing.

Here's some pictures:

they don't really do it justice, and here's a good article: Sue

[Pam - gardengal]

You got it in one, Sue, and without benefit of the photo. It is indeed Pulmonaria, also commonly called lungwort or sometimes Jerusalem Sage. I've never heard it referred to as trout plant either, but it fits.

pam - gardengal

[Sed5555]

Looks like lungwort (pulmonaria). sed5555

[David Hill]

I've never heard of pulmonaria referred to as Jerusalem sage, normally that is Phlomis....

[SugarChile]

Years ago I had a fit of passion for pulmonaria--one of those gardening obsessions where the chosen plant is all you can think about. I planted many different kinds, and enjoyed them tremendously. Then we had a terrible drought two years running, with watering restrictions, and some of them went by the wayside. I still have good old "Mrs. Moon" and one or two others, and they are enormously cheering this time of year.

In a "normal" year they don't need special watering or a lot of care. Some summers the leaves suffer from mildew, which bothers me more than it seems to bother the plant. If I get to it, I cut them back, and they respond with fresh new foliage.

Not a showy plant, but a satisfying one. Everyone should have a few pulmonarias.

Cheers, Sue

[Ann]

"Pam - gardengal" expounded:

I've heard it called Trout Lily, but not Trout Plant.

[Janice]

When I first saw it I was told it was commonly called "little boy and little girl" plant because of the blue and pink flowers. But was also told it was called pulmonaria.

Janice