This is a cyclamen, a cousin of the primrose, which is sold as a decorative plant during the winter holidays. This is also when it blooms.
From what I've read (and don't quote me on any of this; I'm by no means an expert) cyclamen are grown from a tuber (I'm assuming in the same way you grow paperwhites from a bulb or sweet potato vines from a sweet potato) and flower from December through April. They shrivel and go dormant from April until August, at which point you can replant the corm (the dried-up tuber) and grow another cyclamen for the holidays.
I spotted this one at my local grocery store and fell in love with it instantly (hence the pics.) The red and green colors are even more intense than a pointsettia and the flowers remind me a lot of orchids. Even the buds made me think of tiny swans.
Because I didn't recognize the plant, I went home to read up on the species first; I do like to know what I'm buying. Then I went back to purchase it -- only to find someone else had already snatched it up. So now I'll have to look for another one.
If you give plants as gifts during the holidays, this would probably make a gardener friend very happy.
