It is always a real treat to see this come into flower in late spring and early summer with bright white buttons of double flowers held on thin wires of stems above the narrow green foliage.  This comes from the mountains of Europe and may likely be the closely related species pusilla based on its narrow leaves.  Great rock garden plant and zone 5 hardy.

We saw this inhabitant of high alpine meadows in Sichuan in May of 2006 and were blown away by the small carpet of large pink flowers.  Did we ever want that bad but no seed to be had.  Fortunately a Norwegian friend collected seed and we can offer this rarity.  Goes brown  the winter so don't freak out.