Anemone blanda 'Charmer'
totototo@telus.net (Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:02:54 PDT)

What color is Anemone blanda 'Charmer'?

I have a patch of what's supposed to be this, but the variation in
flower color tells me that the tubers were not all true to name.
Perhaps they're all near-lookalike seedlings, or the stock became
contaminated with seedlings; who knows what tricks the bulb trade was
up to when I bought them?

A few feet from this patch, a single clump turned up this year with
flowers of an unusual color, best described as "fluorescent pink".
Really: like a flamingo plugged into a neon sign!

The flowers seem to be rather small for a cultivar of Anemone blanda,
but the color is a real stunner. I have no idea if this is a chance
seedling or simply a tuber from the main clump that was displaced
during garden maintenance.

Unfortunately, Google is hopeless. All the entries it kicks up on the
first page are braindead nursery squibs with lots of irrelevant
information and not very much that's on point.

Does this little anemone sound like 'Charmer' to anyone familiar with
the real thing, or is it "something else?" And if it's not 'Charmer',
tell us what that famous cultivar looks like.

PS: I have authentic Anemone blanda 'Radar' in my garden. It's bigger
than this little interloper, and the color is deeper, though it makes
much the same kind of spot of brilliant color.

I don't know if my little interloper has a white center to the
flowers, or not.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate

on beautiful Vancouver Island