my purple aubrieta

this one branch of my purple rock cress aubrieta has been blooming all winter long, steadily, since late fall. a persistent sprig of blooms kept on blooming, day after day, weathering snow after snow. now i am waiting to see my purple aubrieta experience its first spring in my garden. it survived this spot at the top of my rock garden when nothing else seemed to, not even turkish veronica. how did this plant keep blooming through a colorado winter? through november, december, january, and february? it was as if it was frozen in time, in a literal sense, reappearing in steady and singular purple through each new round of melting snow. i took this picture today in the boulder foothills, on February 19th, 2009. i planted two of these plants to begin with last fall, in keeping with my philosophy that no plant should have to grow up without a sibling. but its sister didn't survive an unseasonal fall heat wave, and now i am left with only this one.  but since they say that rock cress aubrieta will reseed after flowering, even to the point of taking over, i am thinking that the spirit of the sister will live on. given its already proven persistence, my purple aubrieta will no doubt make itself known when spring arrives. i have seen different shades of rock cress spilling over slopes in scores of colorado foothill gardens, and it is beautiful.