Anemone nemorosa
Archive entry 05.04.09
25th April 2006
The Wood Anemone is the most delightful of native plants, and among the natural variation are a wonderful array of forms. It is very easy to name new variations,
some of which prove to be valuable, and some eventually prove to be worthless, but in the process untold confusion is generated. Many years ago I started raising the
little buggers from seed, and I am guilty of selecting out a number of seedlings that seem to me to have special merit, but I may be wrong. In the meantime I am collecting
together all of the named cultivars that I can get hold of for comparison, and for the delight of growing them.
25th April 2006
I suffer from volcanic eruptions of pretentiousness from time to time, and during one such up-spewing of egotism I decided to plant nothing but blue ones in the top of the
woodland. Most of the plants up there were raised from seed in 1983, but I have added a few of the named cultivars as well.
21st April 2006
The blue forms are sometimes referred to as Anemone nemorosa var coerulea, and they are a local speciality of the flora, however it seems to me
that the populations with blue flowered plants are declining rapidly - they used to occur in the north of the county, but I haven't seen them. The closest I have seem are slightly blue tinged whites
around Camelford. I don't know if this is because the white forms are out competing them, or because people collect the deeper colours for their gardens. It would be modern and trendy
to blame people, but I don't ever see them in gardens locally, and some of the populations that have collapsed catastrophically are well off the beaten track. I suspect
that there is an environmental bogeyman at work, but I cant easily identify one. The very best population I knew has now entirely gone. I suspect that the tree canopy became too thick, and the bluebells
underneath have become so dense that the ground is too dry to support the Anemones during spring.
8th April 2007
This is a typical white flowers plant, with rather large flowers, but otherwise unexcetional. I try to keep the large flowered single whites to the garden immediately
behind the house, but they do sometimes pop up in other places. This one grows quite vigorously among the grass, though it is a little incongruous under a Eucalyptus.
I have a special bed for the pink ones as well. They die!
20th April 2008
I try to plant the pinkish seedlings all together under a sycamore tree behind the house, but the pink colour is unreliable and some years they all look white.
3rd April 2009
11th April 2010
15th April 2012
7th May 2016