My garden right now is a very dramatic scene.\u00a0 The asters are taking a prolonged swan song before their final bow; the dusty pinks, lavenders and blues gradually giving way to brown seedheads.\u00a0 The Japanese anemones, however, are still singing at the top of their lungs, like the floral divas they are. \u00a0Sometimes known to their botanist friends as Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, or Anemone japonica, or even Anemone x hybrida, they are some of the most impressive fall bloomers.\u00a0 The fact that most of them can pull off stellar performances in light shade makes them even better.<\/p>\n
My favorite of these prima donnas, Anemone \u2018Whirlwind\u2019, is center stage in my front border. \u2018Whirlwind\u2019 is a tall plant, rising to about three feet. The dark green leaves are lobed and remind me a bit of maple foliage. The white flowers, borne at the tops of the stems, are poppy-like and semi-double, with fluffy golden stamens in the centers.\u00a0 The feature that gives these plants such a distinctive appearance, however, is the way the stems are arranged.\u00a0 At about the two-foot point, each tall flower stalk branches into four or five individual erect stems. Each of those stems is topped by a fat flower bud. Usually the central stem is shorter than those surrounding it and its bud opens first.\u00a0 When that happens, the whole arrangement looks like planets orbiting a golden-centered sun.\u00a0 Eventually, the center flower fades and the side flowers open up.<\/p>\n
All those suns and planets make a large clump of flowering \u2018Whirlwind\u2019 a spectacular sight.\u00a0 The blooms are also good cut flowers, though not as long lasting as their seasonal bouquet-mates, chrysanthemums.\u00a0 Japanese anemones make up for their slightly shorter vase life by remaining attractive after the petals have dropped. The centers, which stay on the stems, look like greenish buttons and make nice accents in arrangements.<\/p>\n
Anemone hupehensis arrived in England from Hubei Province in China in 1910. It had long been naturalized in Japan\u2014hence the common name–and quickly caught on in the West.\u00a0 Breeders began using the species to create new hybrids, so Anemone hupehensis is a parent to many of the currently available varieties sold as \u201cJapanese anemones.\u201d<\/p>\n
The common name, \u201canemone,\u201d is a little confusing, as it is also applied to low growing spring flowers like Anemone blanda, Anemone coronaria and Pulsatilla vulgaris, formerly known as Anemone pulsatilla.\u00a0 Spring anemone selection may be complicated, but fall choices are easier.\u00a0 Of all the commonly cultivated plants called \u201canemone,\u201d only Anemone x hybrida and its relatives bloom in fall.<\/p>\n
My \u2018Whirlwind\u2019 is only one of many cultivars, which are available in single and double forms with blooms in shades of pink, rose and white.\u00a0 Single whites include varieties like \u2018Andrea Atkinson\u2019 and the old favorite, \u2018Honorine Joubert\u2019. Double pinks include the shell-colored \u2018Max Vogel\u2019; \u2018Prince Henry\u2019, with deep rose flowers; and the appropriately named \u2018Party Dress\u2019 with a somewhat rakish array of narrow petals in medium pink.\u00a0 The latter also boasts exceptionally large flowers.\u00a0 The single-flowered, medium pink Anemone tomentosa \u2018Robustissima\u2019 grows in my garden in great profusion.\u00a0 Its only flaw is a tendency to flop over because of its stature.<\/p>\n
A happy Japanese anemone is a prolific Japanese anemone. I started with one plant each of \u2018Whirlwind\u2019, \u2018Robustissima\u2019 and \u2018Prince Henry\u2019.\u00a0 I ended up with a lot of all three. The good thing is that as the plants reproduce, the maple-like leaves form an attractive groundcover.\u00a0 I can envision interplanting Japanese anemones with spring-flowering bulbs, whose dying foliage would then be covered by the anemone leaves<\/p>\n
. \u2018Whirlwind\u2019 seems the most prone to self-seeding, but perhaps that is due to its sunny location.\u00a0 All anemones can bloom in light shade, but sun brings out more flowers.<\/p>\n
Japanese anemones are easy to grow and work well in cottage gardens and other informal layouts.\u00a0 I saw clumps of them growing amidst highly trained and cosseted Japanese chrysanthemums a few years ago at the New York Botanical Garden\u2019s \u201cMomijigari: The Japanese Autumn Garden\u201d show.\u00a0 Erect types, like \u2018Whirlwind\u2019 probably work best in more formal settings.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t often see Japanese anemones in the garden centers at this time of year, but that may be because they are swamped under the seasonal high tide of chrysanthemums and asters.\u00a0 To buy some for your own garden, try Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Rd.., Madison, OH 44057, 800-852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/a>. Free catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My garden right now is a very dramatic scene.\u00a0 The asters are taking a prolonged swan song before their final bow; the dusty pinks, lavenders and blues gradually giving way to brown seedheads.\u00a0 The Japanese anemones, however, are still singing at the top of their lungs, like the floral divas they are. \u00a0Sometimes known to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[454,452,453,267,451,450],"class_list":["post-659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","tag-anemone-hupehensis","tag-anemone-x-hybrida","tag-fall-anemone","tag-fall-gardening","tag-japanese-anemone","tag-windflower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}