I like to grow any spring anemone I can get, and this isn't too easy for those living in North America. Most of them have ephemeral seeds; if, however, the seeds have a cottony coating when mature, those seeds will remain viable in storage. Examples of the latter type are the all too common Anemone multifida (which comes into seed exchanges under various names) and such pretty species as A. palmata (brilliant yellow), which is barely hardy outdoors here but flourishes in the bulb frame. Anemone nemorosa is considered a pest by many gardeners, but I love it and want to grow every form except the ones with green "petals" (sepals) or deformed-looking double flowers. Such a small plant doesn't out-compete anything, though it shouldn't be established in a rock garden where tiny choice plants are grown, lest it smother them with its leaves, which reach about 4 inches/10 cm at maturity. Anemone appenina is another good one that flowers a little earlier; those I have are white inside and pale blue outside, and stay closed in dull weather. A. ranunculoides has tiny yellow flowers and, here at least, takes a long time to form a good colony; there is an attractive double form. I've also acquired some more unusual ones from European bulb sources. From seed I have A. heldreichii (now, I believe, sunk in A. hortensis) and A. biflora. There are also fine forms of A. blanda, another species that's unfairly denigrated for being easy and self-propagating; one from Ruksans called 'Enem' is a real gentian blue. I got one under the name A. stellata from Edelweiss Perennials a couple of years ago; it has bright magenta flowers, and I think stellata is actually a synonym for A. hortensis too, though it's hard for a non-botanist to view this and the white, blue-backed flowers of "heldreichii" as the same thing. One of the things I'm most remiss about is in failing to establish our native spring anemones in the garden. A. deltoidea is very like the European A. trifolia and is native to my country property here. A. oregana is similar to A. nemorosa and also comes in different colors -- blue, white, and pale pink; it's usually found above the winter snow line, which suggests that it might not flourish at lower elevations. The strains of A. coronaria and A. pavonina that John Grimshaw discussed are favorites for me too, though not all color forms seem equally cold-hardy. This is interesting, because I noticed while traveling in Crete that different populations tended to be all one color (pink or blue or white), and I wondered if this was connected with the elevation at which they grew. I've also seen mixed-color populations of A. coronaria, though. The blue ones seem to stick around best here, which is fine with me, and they also bloom before the red ones. Here in western Oregon, they do best in full sun and well-drained sites. I think they'd look nice in a "gravel garden" covered with stone mulch, but in the wild they usually grow in grass among herbs that probably get tall and dense later in the season. John mentioned a garden where they are naturalized in grass but looked a little unnatural -- I expect because the grass was short when they were in bloom. I do think a lot about naturalizing bulbs in grass and always enjoy seeing seedlings that pop up in the meadow grass near my bulb frames. At present I have only crocuses in the actual lawns, but in the new garden I'm planning I'm going to try more things in an area where I noticed the lawn (now covering most of the half-acre property) is sparse. I have to leave it in grass to allow vehicle access to the back garden, but that's no reason not to have spring ephemerals that will be dormant at any time when it's necessary to drive a tractor over them. Jane McGary Northwestern Oregon, USA