Spring Anemones (A. blanda)
Ellen Hornig (Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:01:31 PDT)

I have to say that my experience with A. blanda is completely different from
Jim McKenney's, and neither lime nor a dry summer explain it - quite the
reverse.

I live near the southern shore of Lake Ontario, in a classic snow belt area
(10-12 feet/3-3.5m per year, on average). Both the beautiful rich blue A.
blanda, and 'White Splendor', have been established here for - oh - 15-20
years? the blue ones self-sow everywhere, like crazy, ad nauseam, etc, and
they've picked up some genes from 'White Splendor', so we now have some
large pale blues as well - sort of a pity, as no one is ever going to edit
the population, and it will gradually become more and more mixed.

Our soil is slightly acid, our summers are not dry (that's why the South
Africans do well here). So what's the secret? I don't know, but it may be
the cool, moist winter conditions that obtain when you have several months
of reliable snow cover. In any case, these things are in the grass, in the
pachysandra, and all over the garden...

Ellen

Ellen Hornig
Seneca Hill Perennials
3712 County Route 57
Oswego NY 13126 USA
http://www.senecahillperennials.com/
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com>
To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 11:55 AM
Subject: Re: [pbs] Spring Anemones

Anemone blanda is one of those plants which at first seems to do well in our
gardens. The plants persist for a few years and even seed around
unobtrusively. However, they are best not regarded as permanent residents:
they eventually disappear.