Garden Centre

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

More autumn colour

The Japanese anemone – which oddly enough, is a native of China – has large-petalled flowers in shades of white through pink to quite a bright magenta or light purple, surrounding bright yellow stamens, the whole display carried on two to four foot stems above deeply lobed green leaves.

This is a flower that is easily grown in fertile, moist soil with plenty of organic matter mixed in – which is why you see them so often on allotments. They prefer full sun in northern gardens but will adjust to partial shade and they really need partial shade in southern gardens as they scorch quite easily in the (rare!) hot autumn days. You do need to protect them from slugs. In areas that have severe winters with little snow and strong winds, plants should be mulched in late autumn to protect the root system and because they flower late in the year, if you want to cut them for arrangements, you’ll need to offer some kind of protection from early frosts in colder areas. It’s lovely when allowed to run a bit riot in a big clump of tall waving stems.

At this time of year, few plants can match Japanese anemone for providing reliable autumn colour, especially in partial shade. It has its disadvantages though (doesn’t everything?)

It can be invasive.

There are many worse things to be invaded by (bird flu? Red spider mite?) but if it worries you, then plant them in big pots, so they have a couple of years to spread out, and every third year, lift and divide the root system, repotting the most vigorous looking roots and giving the rest away.

Labels: autumn colour, autumn flowers, japanese anemone

The All Seasons Gardener at 1:37 AM

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