Anemones (continued)

Wood Anemones

If you have a damp, shady spot in your garden that couldn't grow anything decent, Wood Anemones are the answer to your prayer. These are among the few spring flowers which actually prefer shade (or, at least, partial shade) to full sun. So, rejoice, and plant Wood Anemones!

As with the Grecian Windflowers, Wood Anemones are also very long-blooming: they last for about 4 - 6 weeks, and they naturalize (come back year after year and multiply) very easily.

Wood Anemones aren't as showy as Grecian Windflowers. Their colours are pastels, rather than jewel tones. In addition, Wood Anemones are not commercially available everywhere. However, considering that they are another "Plant and Forget" candidate, they are well worth searching for.

Your best bet is a mail order or on-line gardening catalogue. I suggest you start with you start with: McClure & Zimmerman, Botanus, Brent and Becky's Bulbs or Fraser's Thimble Farms.

Flowering time:	early spring
Plant height:	4 - 8" (10 - 20 cm)
Minimum planting depth:	4" (10 cm0
Hardiness zones:	suitable for zones 4 - 8
Colours:	white, pink, blue, lilac sometimes have yellow centres
Shape/form:	most have 6 or 7 single petals; however, some cultivated varieties have double flowers the leaves are fern-like
Alternate names:	Wild Wood Anemones Latin name: Anemone nemorosa
Notes:	plant under shrubs or trees, in rock gardens, close to a sunless north wall or fence, in beds or borders they like shade, and moist, peaty, humus-rich (acidy) soil
Example varieties:	Alba (white, sometimes blushed with pink), Allenii (dark blue with yellow centre), Pentre Pink (pink), Robinsoniana (lavender-blue/lilac), Vestal (double, white), Wilk's Giant (white with yellow centre)

Robinsoniana	Pentre Pink	Allenii