Friends are anemones
These beautiful blooms are an easy way to add interest to your late summer garden
THE Japanese anemones are in flower under the birch trees, providing a welcome burst of pink colour. They are a good plant for partial shade but they can suffer a bit when the soil dries out and need some watering.
Once established they can tolerate some dryness but ideally they prefer a reliably moist, well drained soil. What they don’t like is to get too cold and soggy in the winter.
When they are happy, they will roam about, spreading underground with their roots. For this reason they are sometimes classed as aggressive and should only be planted where you are happy to let them roam.
Planted together, they will create a delightful picture.
Otherwise they are best kept in pots where you can control the situation.
anemones are available in pink or white with central yellow stamens, the saucer-like blooms held high above vine-like foliage. While it’s a good time to choose varieties while they are in flower, it’s too hot and dry to plant at the moment so wait until autumn or spring.
‘Honorine Jobert’ is the pristine white variety with beautiful single flowers. ‘Frilly Knickers’ is a more showy variety with lots of ruffled white double flowers delicately flushed with violet.
‘Pamina’ comes in a rich pink and has pretty double flowers. One of the most unusual is ‘Wild Swan’ which has a delicate violet banding on the underside of white petals. It won plant of the year back in 2011 at the Chelsea Flower Show and has proved popular ever since. It’s a hybrid, so not a classical Japanese anemone, and starts flowering much earlier in the year. With a very long flowering period, it’s a great addition to the herbaceous border.
When finished, anemone flowering stems can be cut back and the foliage will mostly die back for winter. In spring it may need a little more tidying up and a layer of mulch will help with moisture retention.
Spring is also a good time to divide if you wish to propagate them. They don’t like to be disturbed so don’t worry if they sulk after being lifted for a year, they will come back.
Because of their vigorous suckering habit, they will also propagenerally gate easily from root cuttings. Do this job in autumn –just dig up a bit of root and cut into short lengths and lay on top of moist compost and they will root and form shoots.
Japanese anemones have a light and graceful habit and are a great way of keeping floral interest late into the season. Now’s also a good time to order other members of the anemone family such as Anemone blanda which will form a carpet of white or blue daisies in early spring. The corms can be planted this autumn.
It’s a good idea to give them an overnight soak in lukewarm water as they can be a bit dry when you buy them. They’re very happy in light shade under deciduous trees where they will gradually naturalise and provide early nectar and sustenance for our pollinating insects.