A Chat About Anemones.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 8, 24 February 1909, Page 39

A Chat About Anemones.

1 daresay there are few gardeners—--1 use the word “gardener’ in its broad est sense, of course—who are not enamoured of one oi more of the anemones or windflowers. Nay, there are some who are such ardent lovers of the genus that they can hardly tell upon which of the fair damosels which constitute the family their affections rest. There are, it is true, a few of the family which even the anemone iover cannot embrace in his affections, but they are few indeed, and. as a whole, the sweet sisterhood is fascinating enough to excuse the irresolution of the lover of the windflower. And what a varied family are they! We. have .the “fair and frail anemone.” anemone uemorosa, which appears to shrink from the public gaze and seeks its home amid the woods, each flower seeming to think that in these solitudes the many sister flowers will take the attention away from its own beauties. Then there

are the blue-eyed hepaticas, such charming things, and so beautiful in their colouring and form. There are many more of simple tastes and simple beauty, but there are also flowers of almost opulent charms. Such are the Japan anemones, anemone japonica. now so varied in colour and shape, and so valuable and valued in the late autumn time, when days grow short and flowers

grow few. Rich, also, in their beauty, albeit quiet in their colouring, are the tall Alpine windflowers, such as the anemone alpina and A. sulphurca, so noble in their season, and so fascinating to al! who love beautiful flowers. Then we have all the brilliance of the i rown or poppy anemones, and the glowing colour of the flowers of anemone lid gens, and the graceful form ami bright colouring of the star anemone, A. hortensis. Among anemones of low growth we must begin with anemone uemorosa. the wood anemone, which has so many beau tiful varieties. We all know the common white one—common in nothing save its abundance, and so beautiful that it seems as if it wen* really what the poet pictured it moltcn snow formed into a flower. Think of the little golden stars of anemone ranunculoides. spangling some bank in the garden; or. choicer still, its variety Pallida, with sulphur-yellow blossoms, little gems, indeed, and quite at home on some shaded and moist bank. These things remind us of the early Greek windflower, anemone blanda. and

its (lost* ally, albeit from the Italian pen insula. This is A. apennina; both are dwarf plants, and both give Howers varying from blue to almost lose and white. Then we think of the anemones of the llepatica section, in blue and white an I rose, and in various intermediat • shades. Lovely things are these, much ol their wadfare depending upon the preservation of t’heii leaves from the sun in summer t ime. These do not exhaust tin* dwarf-grow ing the lower parts ol the giounds oi tile rock garden, but we have others which arc in a mui-c intermediate between those and the taller ones. I bus there is that lovely Hower, the narcissus-flowered windflowei. anemone l naia-issatlor.i. with all its grace and its lovely flowers of white. It. again, re minds us of the white anemone polyant lies, w hose interest to us is <ven enhanced by our knowing that it conn's from the Himalayas. Then there' arc the Japanese anemones. What a host arc these now. and bearing ail manner of names, from the plain japonica, elegans, rosea, and alba, to the

various French and German designations. Yet a good variety of alba is as beautiful as any, and a mass of it with gladiolus French ley ensis among it is a sight for the gods to delight in, let alone us humbler sublunary lovers of the flowers. But the pen has wandered far, and we have not yet touched upon the Poppy or Crown anemones, as we call the varieties of anemone corona ria. And what glorious tilings some of these are! Colouring truly Oriental in its hues and in its brightness—colouring which far surpasses in its intensity the carpets of the East, which are so proverbial for their richness. Tiie tints of the Crown anemone far outshine these, and when we think of the shapes of these flowers, from the. exquisite Hat cups of the single varieties to the rosette-like doubles, or the wonderful ribbon-like rosettes of some of the St. Brigids, we are more ami more enamoured of tiie race which has given us all these brilliant blossoms. It is only a step from these to the hortcn>is or stella forms, with their own (harms, both of colour or of form; and but a shorter step to the fulgens varieties, s o brilliant in their scarlet that we wonder win nee came that gorgeous, glowing scarlet such as we see in the variety named anemone fulgens gracea. And now my chat must close, even though many good anemones, such as pulsatilla, of which one would fain speak, remain with their beauties untold at the present, time, and even though I have not ventured to touch deeply upon the mat-ter-of-fact but useful question cd' their cultivation. That must wait until our good editor grants permission.—S. Arnott in the “Scottish Gardener.”