Specialty Gardening: Suzy's Garden, 0 by chris_h

chris_h wrote:
I have some comments about Japanese Anemones. I have several varieties in my garden, including Robustissima. That one does get very tall flowering stalks that arch forward. In a couple of locations in my garden it looks great and I am glad for the size. I removed it from another spot because of the same qualities. There it was too big and the arching branches encroached on my pathway so that I had to run a guantlet of bees to get past it.

Though they are listed as part shade plants, in my garden they do best in sun and even seem to be drought tolerant. And they don't get so tall in the sun. Robustissima is the best one for blooming in part shade in my experience. I haven't tried it in the sun as I have a limited amount of sunny area and didn't want to lose so much of it to such a large plant.

I have one named "Pamina" that stays a nice size and I have put divisions of it in several places. Some need support and some do not.

The picture is Pamina growing in full sun in my front garden. I also have Whirlwind out there doing very well.

I have so often found that I read the requirements for a certain plant and think I have planted it in the perfect location and it does poorly. Then I start moving it around until I find a spot it likes and it takes off like gangbusters. Of course I have had many plants over the years that simply did not like me or my yard and I finally gave up on them.

It's a mystery to me how plants behave differently in different gardens. There must be other factors at work that we are unaware of. I am zone 5a and Suzy is 5b - shouldn't make a difference, yet for me they thrive in sun - for her, better in part shade.

Well, that's part of the fun, I guess.