Anemone 2015

[Leena]

Finally Anemone x lipsiensis and Anemone trifolia which grow together, I should separate them.
Anemone trifolia continues to flower the latest here and it also keeps its foliage later than any other anemone, until end of summer.

[gote]

Susan,
As I tried to express, this is the experience in my garden. My pinks always become white at least year two. Blue eyes never showed any blue at all - but had the expected shape.

Hoy,
Of course you are right. I should have mentioned ageing.

Leena
To me iot looks like 'Robinsoniana' both colour and size.

Cheers
Göte   

[Hoy]

Leena, your Anemones look great!

If it is the Robinsoniana-look-alike you got from me it is a seedling because the original patch of what might be Robinsoniana is another place.

[Leena]

Leena
To me iot looks like 'Robinsoniana' both colour and size.

Thank you for confirming this Gote. I got this plant from Erjal, who had bought it from botanical garden in Finland with a name 'Robinsoniana', but it differs from other plants sold here in Finland as 'Robinsoniana' which are smaller and darker blue (but not so dark as 'Royal Blue' and such). I'm beginning to think the wrong 'Robinsoniana' in Finland is perhaps 'Allenii'. Last autumn I bought both 'Robinsoniana' and 'Allenii' from Ruksans to compare with my nameless ones.

Thanks Hoy. Your anemone didn't flower yet last summer but I'm hoping to see it next spring. Also 'Bowles Purple', and 'Lismore Blue' should flower next spring, as I'm hoping also 'Kentish Pink', 'Blue Eyes' and 'Maret'.

[Tim Ingram]

Leena and Gote - it's really interesting to see and read about your experiences with Anemone nemorosa in Scandinavia. I've always found the naming of these confusing but one of the best articles on them was written by Ulrich Toubřl in The Plantsman (Vol. 3) way back in the 1980's. ('Hilda' was named for his wife). We were given a form from local woods which quite quickly turns to a deep purple-pink as it ages (we have named this 'Westwell Pink' - presumably synonymous with what is called 'Kentish Pink') and I know there is a similar form called 'Swedish Pink'. I've tried to pull together some of my knowledge of them for an article in the AGS Journal and they look very fine in Leena's photographs - they are such good garden plants. In Britain at least, where we have little if any natural untouched woodland they are very rich in long managed 'ancient' woodland such as the Blean near to us at Canterbury. There is hardly any variation and they mostly spread vegetatively. There seems more variety on the other side of the North Sea.

It's also interesting to see A. trifolia - I've never grown this but would like to try other species. Robin White has mentioned to me a pink form of this species, have you come across this? I must have a good look back through this Anemone thread.

[Tim Ingram]

Jut had a good look back through this thread and it looks as though A. nemorosa might get more coverage next spring  - some very interesting forms and not a great deal less confusion about names than before (for me ). They are glorious in woodland as in Leena's photographs. This is in the Blean last spring and a curious variant which may or may not be stable?

[Hoy]

Hi Tim,

the curious variant you show looks good. Hope it is stable!


By the way, does anybody have Anemone quinquefolia for swapping?


Here is the "big brother" of the wood anemones, Anemone pratti.. It's like an Anemone nemorosa on steroids!

[Leena]

Leena and Gote - it's really interesting to see and read about your experiences with Anemone nemorosa in Scandinavia.

It's also interesting to see A. trifolia - I've never grown this but would like to try other species. Robin White has mentioned to me a pink form of this species, have you come across this?

Thank you Tim.
I haven't heard of a pink form of A.trifolia, and my white one doesn't turn pink when it ages (but I don't know if it would in other kind of climate).
The wild A.nemorosa turns pinkish when it ages, and it will be interesting to see if my 'Kentish Pink' flowers next May and if it is a different kind of pink from the wild ones, it should be as I understand.
You have found a nice different looking pink variant.

[Tim Ingram]

Leena - the first photo shows 'Westwell Pink' when it first comes out, not really any different to any other woodland anemone (here it is growing with one of Elizabeth Strangman's wonderful 'Queen of the Night' hellebores from Washfield Nursery). The second shows it as it matures growing in a friend's garden as it turns to a strong pinkish-purple. The strength of colour varies from year to year and garden to garden but is always much more striking than most other pinks I have seen. The individual flowers though are not especially well shaped or symmetrical - the good thing is that it is very vigorous. The change in colour must be similar to the way Trillium grandiflorum can develop such a strong pink as it matures; nothing like the purity of the true pink selections of the trillium. There don't seem to be forms of the woodland anemone that are truly a good pink as they first open in the way that the blues are. (We will have to explore our local woods more closely next spring)

[Leena]

Thank you for the picture of your 'Westwell Pink'. Also here the wild ones start white and then by the end of the flowering turn pink, but perhaps not as pink as your plant, it is very showy growing so large clump.
Last spring was not so good for wild A.nemorosa here as the previous one, but I hope the next spring they will flower again a lot, it is so nice to go "hunting" for  different forms.
Your dark hellebore is a beauty!

[annew]

We found a pale blue variant of Anemone trifolia in Italy. I must have a photo somewhere..

[Tim Ingram]

Would be nice to see that Anne, and also more about some of the less well known or grown species - A. prattii does look very striking in Trond's picture. So many forms of A. nemorosa have been selected over the years but there must be a good number of other species that would be interesting to compare with this such as the widespread A. quinquefolia and several western US species (Panayoti Kelaidis refers briefly to these in an article in 'Rock Garden Plants of Noorth America' - an anthology from the NARGS Bulletin), and a whle host of species from Asia into China and Japan.

[Hoy]

Yes, I hope you'll find the picture Anne!

I agree with you Tim, it should be a lot of other anemone species and cultivars out there. A pratti is an interesting species. The flower is more like the flowers of the big, many-flowered cousins like A japonica but the leaves are like a nemorosa on steroids.

This one has 4 in stead of 5 petals:




I hope somebody has picture of the North American species to show!

[Maggi Young]

I hope somebody has picture of the North American species to show!

That would be nice - here are some from McMark :
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=4790.msg149945#msg149945

 I note that the links for  photos of Anemone quinquefolia given previously in the NARGS forum are amongst those "lost"

[Tim Ingram]

Very nice Maggi - thanks. Interesting to see a dark leaved variant like some of the nemorosa forms and the association with other plants such as Panax (some botanists put the Araliaceae and Apiaceae together in one family - they are very close but different enough to make it much more convenient to view them separately). Wouldn't it be lovely to establish Linnaea borealis in the garden? Probably not for us in the dry south-east! A little more research in order