UK bulbs - anemone nem.

I tried to buy it [the "crested" Anemone nemorosa] there years ago and they
would not sell it to me, but I got it anyway by buying a field-grown
rhododendron from them, with the anemone rhizomes in the root ball.

it really brought back some memories and made me chuckle. I guess we're all
alike. When I was a beginning gardener, I very much wanted Passiflora
incarnata in my garden. It's a native of Maryland, but back in those days I
never saw it in the wild. [I've since been shown a site where it grows
freely - and was probably introduced]. I knew of one mail order source
which occasionally listed it, but I never saw it for sale in local
nurseries. But I did see it occasionally in local nurseries: nursery stock
grown well south of Maryland, where the Passiflora is doubtless a
pernicious field weed, occasionally had plants of Passiflora incarnata
growing as weeds in the pots. And so I acquired my plant the way Jane
acquired her anemone. I had to buy and Ilex to get mine - I think Jane must
have patronized a better nursery to get a rhodie with hers.

It isn't just in the mid and lower South that this Passiflora incarnata is
a terrible weed. I cossetted my plant during its first two seasons. A few
years later I couldn't pull it up fast enough. Be warned!

You may find that this nursery-scouting is also a good way to obtain the
other native Passiflora: I've also seen P. lutea in nursery pots.

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@starpower.net
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where I have a passion for
native plants, especially those illustrated in Audubon's Birds of America.

At 10:48 AM 6/11/2004 -0700, you wrote:

Jim wrote,

Suddenly I'm feeling very acquisitive and want to start a new collection.
[of Anemone nemorosa variants]

At a recent local plant sale, I acquired a couple of new ones from a Swiss
nurseryman who has relocated to my area. His nursery is Edelweiss
Perennials, and it has a rudimentary website (be sure you search for
Edelweiss Perennials, not "Edelweiss Nursery," which is a midwestern
bedding plant operation). I've also found an excellent list of these plants
at Long Acre Plants (U.K.) but have not received a reply to my inquiry
about whether they ship overseas.

The "crested" form that Diane Whitehead describes as a plant passed from
garden to garden is probably the same as the one that I got from Bovees
Nursery in Portland, Oregon. I tried to buy it there years ago and they
would not sell it to me, but I got it anyway by buying a field-grown
rhododendron from them, with the anemone rhizomes in the root ball. I
expect they sell it on purpose now. They have a mail-order operation but I
don't know if they're on line.

I don't recall whether Janet Galpin, who is working on a British National
Collection of Anemone, is on this forum, but I've corresponded with her in
the past and she probably has a good list of known varieties of A. nemorosa.

I recently researched the British National Collections program while
casting about for something to write. In this scheme, both institutions and
individuals maintain and curate systematic collections of one genus, or one
section of a genus (e.g., there is a national collection of Japanese
Anemone cultivars). A standing committee examines proposals and certifies
the collections based on fairly elaborate criteria. Some years ago,
American nurseryman Barry Glick was trying to stir up interest in starting
a similar program in the USA, but as far as I know it never got off the
ground, or should I say in the ground. Especially with the movement to
restrict the entry of new plant species to the USA, it might be good to
explore establishing such a project now, under the auspices of a
representative and stable committee, with official input from plant
societies. (Replies to this paragraph should have a new subject line,

please.)

Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA

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