Wood Anemones – welcoming to the eye and heart - by Sally Gregson
Thriving in shady woodland wood anemones can be planted up close to all sorts of later performing shrubs and plantsAfter such a long hard winter those first, keenly anticipated spring flowers are more than welcome to the eye and the heart. To see the bare black earth gradually become fresh and green is what all gardeners have been waiting for since the harsh onset of winter back in early November.
So to come upon a wild drift of Windflowers (Anemone nemerosa) carpeting the woodland floor in April is especially welcome. Seemingly from nowhere they uncurl their buds and lift their faces to greet the sun. For although they thrive in shady woodland, they take advantage of the sunlight coming through the still-bare canopy, and flower for England. Meanwhile their little tubers are working their pretty way into the base of hedges and through tree roots, ready to effect another delightful surprise next spring.
 Yet, paradoxically, one of the joys of those first flowers is that like spring itself, they are essentially transient. They emerge from the cold naked soil bright with youthful eagerness. They open their petals. And then they fade away. Any such fickleness among summer flowers would be tolerated by few. We gardeners expect those plants to provide a continuity of flowers, foliage and fruit to fill the borders all season.
And it is just this transience that enables wood anemones to be planted up close to all sorts of later performing shrubs and herbaceous plants. They can involve themselves intimately with summer-shade-loving hostas, dicentras and hardy geraniums. Once the windflowers have disappeared, the leaves and flowers of such neighbours extend over their dormant tubers leaving them safe and dry. The drought suits them. Anemones are below ground for so long that they tend to rot in damp soils. And they prefer to be left undisturbed during the summer while they are below ground so the close proximity of other plants discourages any vigorous hoeing or forking that might upset their tubers.
Although it is hard to improve on the simplicity of the wild form with its starry white flowers, there are a few choice varieties worth seeking out. There is an exquisitely pretty ‘double’ form with a tight white knot of central petals surrounded by a well-defined ruff of single petals: A. nemerosa ‘Vestal’. And the slight tendency to pale washed blue-mauve in the wild species has been exaggerated in A. nemerosa ‘Robinsoniana’. Anemone nemerosa ‘Royal Blue’ is a little more blue, but it’s a somewhat misleading name. As is A. nemerosa ‘Bowles’ Purple’ whose young leaves are flushed with the eponymous purple.
The buttercup-yellow A. ranunculoides bucks the pale trend: its little flowers sparkle against the dark soil, and the double form, A. ranunculoides ‘Pleniflora’ bears bright gold buttons about 1cm (½ in) across. This crosses in the wild with A. nemerosa to form A. x lipsiensis, a most desirable of hybrids, with open flowers of pale moon-yellow.
A. hortensis (syn. A. stellata) is a rarer, less prolific beauty. The flowers vary from pink-eyed to pale raspberry and lilac and they have great charm. They lower their heads coyly at first before straightening their necks and looking you in the eye. Their soft colours associate well with silver-leaved Pulmonaria ‘Diana Clare’ and grape-hyacinths, provided the latter are kept within bounds. It is thought that this species crossed naturally in its Mediterranean habitat with A. pavonina to produce A. x fulgens, the forerunner of the familiar florists’ anemones.
The so-called Greek Anemones, A. blanda, open their wide blue faces on a bright morning whenever the sun shines. They tolerate the woodland shade of their North European cousins, but they are hedonists at heart. They come from the rocky scrubland of the eastern Mediterranean, from Albania and Greece to Turkey and Lebanon. So give them a freedraining open site and be careful not to disturb them during their summer dormancy. A white-eyed, bright pink form has been selected in Holland and given the name ‘Radar’, and there is ‘White Splendour’ with especially large flowers to ring the changes, and brighten the spring.
All along the banks of the River Cherwell that divides Magdalene College, Oxford from its renowned fritillary meadow run ribbons of white narcissi and carpets of blue Anemone blanda. Despite their Mediterranean heritage, they seem the epitome of an English spring.
Sally Gregson runs Mill Cottage Plants at Wookey. www.millcottageplants.co.uk) |
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