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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Anemone, the Windflower: Part 2 - the Fibrous-rooted Species

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In part 2 of this 3 part series I will discuss the attributes of a few of the fibrous-rooted anemone species. As mentioned earlier, there are about 120 species of Anemone which fall into three groups; the tuberous-rooted, fibrous-rooted and tall, fall-flowering. By far the largest group are those with fibrous roots or at most, thin rhizomes. These grow in a wide range of habitats from semi-deserts, grasslands, woodland, subalpine, high alpine and even the high Arctic, throughout the world. The tuberous-rooted, on the other hand, are mostly European (refer to part 1 http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1021/ ) while the fall-flowering hail from China and Japan. Let's start close to home with some American species. One of the most widespread is A. canadensis (zone 3), a widespread woodlander to grassland species which can reach 30-60 cm. This species has loose clusters of 3-5 cm white flowers in early summer. Plants spread rapidly so may be a bit of a bully in a perennial border. Probably better to grow this one in the wildflower garden. Confined to the east-central is the foliar look-alike species A. virginiana (zone 4), however, its flowers are not nearly as attractive, being rather small and dirty-white. By Todd Boland (Todd_Boland)July 12, 2008

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