A Mystery Plant

The little flowerhead among a bunch of leaves

At the end of last year we had a mystery plant arrive.  The plant was located where, three years before, a double row of large boxwood stood. The mature boxwoods were intertwined and about 4 foot high, and wide. When we were returning the garden to the original mid 19C design we had to remove the inner row of boxwoods. So the guest may be a century yr old remnant or only 20 yrs old, we didn’t know.

The mystery plant was not in evidence for the first two summers, and is such an interesting leaf that it would hardly have been overlooked (as against the rose among the winter honeysuckle that blooms for two minutes and was overlooked). So when this character arrived, we were surprised – it was in a prominent place in the garden.

The leaves were wide and slightly lighter in the mid vein area. It persisted over the winter and into spring. Then in May, among the many leaves, a flower stalk arrived. Just the one amid a bunch of leaves.  Finally a small insignificant blue flower that looked like a primitive hyacinyth arrived. The ‘flowers’ were at the bottom of the bloom tip, and not all the way up, but that could have been because of the length of time it was dormant, oveercrowding or just the natural form of the plant.

The flower lasted about two weeks, and this past week the leaves were dying back so we were able to see the root of this thing.  A very large ‘bulb’ plus some other smaller bulbs were underneath.

The large 'Bulb'

We are still at a loss as to what this plant is and if anyone has any ideas, please send them this way.