Lungwort

Today's the day .................... to turn blue

Their proper name is Pulmonaria officinalis and they belong to the borage family. 

The Pulmonaria bit comes from the latin 'pulmoa'  meaning 'lung' and was first used by Leonhart Fuchs (1501 - 1566), a German physician and one of the three founding fathers of botany. The species has been named 'officinalis'  by Carl Linnaeus for the medical properties of these plants, used since the Middle Ages to treat coughs and diseases of the chest including tuberculosis and asthma. I always wonder how they discovered that in the first place?

Along with the snowdrops, this is one of the first flowers that you see in the garden.  It has distinctive flowers that start off pink and then eventually change to blue.  In spite of their fragile, papery appearance, they don't seem to be bothered by hard frosts.  This one was given to me by a good friend and it's always lovely to see it again after the winter .......................