regnum-plantae:

Anemone hupehensis, Ranuncolaceae

It’s been well over a month since the end of my horticulture course at Glasgow Botanic Gardens, and after having spent one full day there weekly for about three months I really start missing watching that beautiful place change slowly through the seasons. Some of the last photos I took there were of the enchanting show put on by the airy Japanese anemone in the herbaceous border at the beginning of autumn. Although I have a feeling it might actually be a hybrid of A. hupehensis, the former curator introduced it as above as part of a demonstration on how to divide clump-forming and rhizomatous herbacous perennials. He kindly gave away small suckers to some of my colleagues with gardens -the times I hate living in a flat with no balcony…the plant structure and the flowers are so beautiful, even in pink. 

This species is native to central China, where its wild form grows in damp, open woodland, thriving in the semi-shaded clearings between trees, where a layer of leaf litter and snow is deposited annually. The Japanese anemone is quite hardy, and with shelter and mulching provided, will do well in most damp, but well-draining, semi-shaded areas of a garden, flowering from late summer to late autumn and withstanding well the first frosty days of the cold season. The abundance of flowers, which come in white, pink and purple, is also enjoyed by wildlife, as the plant is often visited by bumblebees and hoverflies in a period where many other flowering species are already going dormant. Due to its height, about 1 m or just over 3 ft, it’s definitely a good addition as a focal point in a bedding display if not much space is available, otherwise it could fill a whole border in an informal garden setting.