Hello Bern,
Looking at your picture I would say it does indeed not show a flower but a flower bud. To me it looks like Carlina except that the leaves look mottled. Spider mite? Virus?
Carlina flowers in late summer in habitat so your green ,,flower" may well develop into a proper flower.
I wonder why you kept it indoors under lights. It is an alpine plant which might spend a long time under snow in winter. You may have disturbed its growth pattern by keeping it lit and not dormant.
It speaks for your gardening skills that you managed to grow this plant to flowering size in a relatively small pot, taking into account that it would normally have a 3 feet long tap root.....
I don't seem to be able to paste links into this message, who can help?
There is a very good picture on Alamy of the stemless flower. I still think that you have what you ordered. The stemless form does really have a large flower at soil level.
Looking at your picture I would say it does indeed not show a flower but a flower bud. To me it looks like Carlina except that the leaves look mottled. Spider mite? Virus?
Carlina flowers in late summer in habitat so your green ,,flower" may well develop into a proper flower.
I wonder why you kept it indoors under lights. It is an alpine plant which might spend a long time under snow in winter. You may have disturbed its growth pattern by keeping it lit and not dormant.
It speaks for your gardening skills that you managed to grow this plant to flowering size in a relatively small pot, taking into account that it would normally have a 3 feet long tap root.....
I don't seem to be able to paste links into this message, who can help?
There is a very good picture on Alamy of the stemless flower. I still think that you have what you ordered. The stemless form does really have a large flower at soil level.