Anemone

Are there any fall blooming anemones that are "well behaved"? By "well behaved" I mean something that doesn't spread like wildfire. I've been reluctant to try anemones, but I am reconsidering. Thanks.

I think it depends on where you are-I live near Seattle, and garden on clay. It gets really dry here in summer. I have a few different Japanese Anemones. None of them are spreading like wildfire. One is spreading modestly. I planted 2 'Wild Swan' last year, they have barely increased in size. Truth to tell, I was hoping for a bit more spread!

I have 4 Jap anemones (I don't remember the names) and none are eager spreaders. I thought they'd be really aggressive but if anything, they are pretty meek. I have to trim up competing foliage or their leaves rot and the plant wants to die. If they can get enough airflow though, they are good. Perhaps my experience is unique.

My experience is that they have been aggressive enough that I avoid planting them now. Not super aggressive to the point of pulling them all up, but definitely wants to spread beyond their allotted territory. Maybe if I had a big swath of ground to cover where a big splash of autumn color would be nice, but no such place in my yard...

Don't you have acreage Wee?

A little, but few areas with sufficient sunlight for them. I've got a number of woodland plants I let run a little.

Maybe that's why my anemones don't spread a lot. I have most of them in full shade.

Hi 'Pistil'. I am curious how your WS did in its first year in your garden. The first year for me they grew well but no flowers. Last year, the second year, I had some good flowering. And with extra mulch I have had them survive some very cold weather the past 2 winters ie several extended spells as low as -14F. They seem to be a bit floppy but the flowers are striking.

I have ?Honorine Joubert and its ambitions are few. I'd like to see more flowers!

Yeah I hear you. My Honorine blooms so late that there is minimal time to enjoy the flowers before the first killing freeze. It's probably my latest blooming perennial.

Id LOVE some "invasive anemones" to take over some of my garden :) The weeds are one of the only things that seem truly "prolific"!!!

Haha...there are enough perennials that can take over your garden. If you lived closer, I'd give you a bunch of mine, I'm just not sure how they'd make the trip to MA.

Oh, promises, promises! LOL! ;0)

In order to control the Japanese anemone is to cut of all the seeds when the petals fall of the plant . I did not do that for the past years and I got lots of seedlings so now I make sure I deadhead often.

I've found both Whirlwind and Kriemhilde not to be aggressive, in fact I've lost a couple of Whirlwind plants where my other Japanese anemones proliferate.

Valal, if you come to Jamaica Plain soon, I have some divisions of more aggressive varieties already in pots that you can have.

I don't know that deadheading will solve the problem, as most spread vigorously by underground runners.

My problem also was with runners, not reseeding ...

perenniallyme,

That is a very nice offer, might be too nice to pass up. I dont get to Jamaica Plain often, but would make a special trip :o)

valal,
send me a dmail with your email address and phone # and I'll send you mine. I'm not really very far away - down rte 9 or the turnpike. I usually go rte 9 to Natick area (not very often), as I'm close to it.

Perennial,

I have lost a couple of Whirlwinds too. In fact, I have never been able to establish it, having planted at least four over time (and they came from Forest Farm), while Honorine and Robustissima thrive. In my new yard I put robustissima in mostly shade in an area where I want aggressive plants to block out adenophora and violets. Campanula takesimana Bellringers is another very assertive plant I use for this purpose. Honorine does well in two completely different locations. One plant actually recovered after I made the mistake of planting two in a walnut bed adjacent to my property. I moved it and it is slowly coming back.

I am expecting Alice this fall.



This message was edited Feb 10, 2016 3:38 PM

Now I don't feel so bad, Donna. Maybe it's whirlwind and not us that has problems. I do have one whirlwind that's survived for 3 or 4 years now, and it's about 6 feet from a giant tree trunk, where the soil isn't too deep and where you wouldn't think it would do well. I think I just stuck it in there when I got it, because maybe I didn't have room elsewhere, and now I'm afraid to move it. The others I planted later in sunnier locations (not more than 4 or 5 hours a day), and I don't think either made it more than a season or two. Maybe it prefers just 2 or 3 hours of sun a day.

I haven't killed any other Japanese anemones except for one of the pretty lady series (either Alice or Diana - Iost the tags so I don't know which, but the other plus "pretty lady Susan" which I planted last year, are proliferating, as well as the honorine jobert I planted last year. Prince Henry took a few years to get going, but now is going to town as well, and as I said, Kriemhilde just seems to grow modestly each year.
I have another that I bought mail order 2 or 3 years ago - can't remember the name, but it has curly edges on the leaves, and it never grew at all and I thought it had died, but it now has 3 or 4 leaves (more than it ever had before) and seems finally to be coming to life (knock on wood) and I hope it's finally getting going.

I got rid of the last of my campanula takesimana this year, because it seeds itself all over and it flops over when it gets tall. (I'm sure there are some self-starters around that will proliferate. Some plants it's impossible to get rid of, but I'm really getting intolerant of plants that fall over. Plus I've had it for years and it's definitely lost its charm. Thinking about getting rid of my spiderwort as well for the same reasons.

I hear you on the takesimana. I removed it from my more cultivated areas (after making the mistake of buying six because it was so pretty the first year. Most of it is now in the back yard to fight the violets and creeping charlie, because the only way you can get rid of those two is with repeated chemicals and/or hand digging. The other batch is where adenophora is trying to take over the planet.

Takesimana is so vigorous that I put five, culled from three plants, in the back yard. That was year three. The biggest issue in the front is that adenophora and takesimana leaves can look very similar (especially when you're tired from digging it out) but I no longer worry about eliminating takesimana by mistake because there is so much of it.

I did do one thing correctly. I saw the most lovely blue version of it and didn't bite. It was expensive. Then I read that the plants in general tend to spread aggressively by rhizomes even if deadheaded. Oh, really?

I usually do really good research but I didn't really do my homework when Bluestone offered it. But then Bluestone once gave me three saponaria Bouncing Bett when I ordered Salvia Rose Queen. It took me while to realize that the three plants were not what I ordered. I did love that plant but every two years I had to take a shovel to it. It was inside of my peony bed, which had granite rocks around it, and it provided color and a lovely scent when the peonies were finished. The rocks contained it. The white is less vigorous, and even more beautiful so I don't cage it.

And what the heck - I grew my own Rose Queen. I have six at my new house in two different locations. Interesting that the ones I grew always persisted for years, whereas the ones I bought keeled in a couple of years. I find that's true with a LOT of plants. If I want a whole bunch of something I grow it. It would have saved me a couple hundred dollars on heuchera!

Anemones are weird. I have one I thought was dead - the Honorine I originally put in the walnut bed. It appeared again, to my surprise, and is very slowly developing despite my pep talks. I should move it, but like you I'm afraid to do it.

This message was edited Feb 10, 2016 3:39 PM

This message was edited Feb 10, 2016 3:41 PM

I had to look up adenophora. If they're the ones I think you're talking about, I always thought they were campanulas. Some seeds must have blown from down the street and started a batch in my neighbor's yard a few years ago. As I'm not partial to violet/purple colors, thankfully I don't have any. And I'm sorry that I gave that neighbor both takesimana and spiderwort many years ago, as she's not that great about tending her garden and both have taken over her side yard, so now I have to go over and help her dig them out.

I haven't found that starting plants myself makes them more hardy, but maybe you're just better at it than I am. And as I have a fairly small yard, I don't have room for a whole lot of any one plant. When any plant exceeds its allotted boundaries, it gets divided and either given away or put in my annual cheap perennial sale on street-wide yard sale day in June. Afterward I go to town buying new plants with the proceeds. Oh what fun!

I did a lot of wintersowing and indoor growing from seed for a few years, but think I'm getting lazy now. The only way I've been growing from seed lately is to scatter seed around the mother plant and hope I get a few babies - especially with short-lived perennials.

Adenophora species are horribly misidentified in the plant trade, and therefore have an undeserved, bad reputation for invasiveness.
It appears that most of what are sold as "Adenophora" are actually the incredibly invasive weed, Campanula rapunculoides. As an example, I'd always assumed Bluestone Perennials was a reasonably reputable place (and probably is, have never ordered from them) but they are selling Campanula rapunculoides under the name Adenophora tashiroi, which is a totally dissimilar and completely noninvasive plant. (Both the photo shown and the description in the catalogue entry are Campanula rapunculoides.)
I've pointed this out to the owner(?) twice now; first time, he acknowledged that I was right and that they were going to "get the correct stock going forward"... but then the same photo and description were returned to the on-line catalogue, still as "Adenophora tashiroi". (I'd asked that he simply identify it properly in his catalogue as what it is, Campanula rapunculoides, so that people are not misled, and so as not to continue to impune the real Adenophora tashiroi.) Hmmmm...
Similarly, most of the "Adenophora" photos in PF are misidentified C. rapunculoides. Another member has started tackling these corrections, with my assistance.
So, there you have it.

This is what I have. I hate this stuff - it's everywhere. Takesimana is NOTHING compared to it. I didn't put it in - it escaped from the poorly maintained gardens of my neighbors. Two years ago it was OK, but I have probably removed 1,000 plants this year. It just took off, and its rampant. I have been shoveling it down to the roots. Roundup doesn't work.

This tree is gone, by the way - a splitting pear. But the plant remains and while I destroy it I also go under the fences of my neighbors to remove their adenophora, mulberries, violets, creeping charlie and ditch lilies before they can invade my garden - again.

That looks similar to what my neighbor has, only hers are a deeper purple. I can't really see the details in your pic.

I definitely sympathize with having to go under fences to weed untended gardens. Sounds all too familiar to my life.

DonnaMack, from what I can see in your photo, it's Campanula rapunculoides... doing exactly what Campanula rapunculoides does.

Thank you for identifying it! I have never been quite sure. Nasty stuff. Frankly, violets and creeping charlie are actually easy by comparison.

I sympathize. With the digging down to the roots, have you been getting the white, carrot-like basal roots out? They're deep down, and the fragile, thready roots that connect individual plants are also connected to these. Without getting these out, I sort of doubt that it would be possible to get rid of it completely... or at least, getting rid of it would probably go faster if you can get these out, so that it can't regenerate.

Thank you Alta. I have been trying to do just that. Get those little thready things. I am actually using a shovel and going, in some cases, a good 8 inches deep, because simply disturbing them isn't enough. It's really bad when those nasty little roots infiltrate your plants. It's weird, because my first yard had absolutely nothing, so even ten years in all I had was a bit of creeping charlie. I could absolutely control my yard. Yes, there were thistles and dandelions, and I would just go around with my dandelion digger. I think it was because it was former farmland and they had scraped off all the top soil.

But the people who were here for 30 years really didn't care. But I'm determined. The other challenge is people on three sides who allow the debris from their properties to fall into your yard. I have removed thousands of maple seedlings, walnut and acorns. In some cases I have had to remove maple treelets because they never go into their yards and just let things proliferate. So far I have paid to have a walnut from my neighbor's yard pruned twice (beats picking up literally thousands of walnuts), a river birch trimmed (it drops some kind of staining berries on my sidewalks) and three maples trimmed. Davey Tree loves me - I also had a splitting Bradford Pear removed.

But I find if you don't do these things you will spend hundreds of hours a year picking up acorns, walnuts and pulling leaves, not to mention the branches that fall from rotting trees. At least beating back the campanula (I thought it was adenophora) is free (except for my aching back).

I WILL have beauty in my yard - I'm getting there!

You are very kind. It's so great to communicate with someone who understands.

Please take a glance at my note again. I believe you really have to remove not just the shallower, thready roots but the very deep, white basal roots that look like a vertical, white carrot. These feed the shallow roots and the plants above. I suspect not removing these is why people have such problems eradicating this pest... it just keeps coming back from its main roots. This has been my observation.

I don't have a big problem with Campanula rapunculoides but am in constant, paranoid alert for them, and am always digging out suspicious seedlings, and the occasional older plant that I've missed. I had a mislabelled "Adenophora" (this poor, innocent, maligned genus!) which I realized much later was actually Campanula rapunculoides (of course, they pretty well all are). So that gives me one area to work on, despite that I got rid of it many years ago. Our neighbour has a rampant infestation (as probably all the other neighbours do too) so there's a constant supply of seeds blowing around.

Thank you so much for this! It explains why they are coming back in some areas. I got some of those "carrots" in some areas but not others! What a pernicious plant! I must dig deeper.

Neighbors on two sides have infestations. None of my neighbors scout their yards the way I do, but that is probably because they have let the crud take over. They don't even notice when I have their trees trimmed by pros or do it myself. I just got a lot more sun by chopping maple tree limbs that were well over my property line and casting shade on the areas where my roses and peonies are. The amazing thing is that they are so inattentive that they don't notice the seven or eight foot limbs I throw over the fence into their yards. They don't notice because there is so much debris on the other side.

I replaced the pear with a multistemmed acer griseum and planted arabis caucasica, two rose Stanwell Perpetual and put back muscari that had been there. But campanula is popping up. I have been using a dandelion digger to pull it out but suspect that I may have to dig up the entire site.

Back into the yard - I'll get those guys if it kills me (which it probably will!)

Thank you so much for your help and guidance!

This message was edited Jul 1, 2015 6:15 AM

Sorry to be a pill but... you have Campanula rapunculoides, not Adenophora. ;-) (And, again, I sympathize... more than enough work already expended to dig out the shallow roots, but to get the deep ones too... yikes.)

Adenophora are not invasive. I have a few species, been growing them for years, and can attest to that. The notion that Adenophora are invasive comes from the fact that they are widely misidentified, even by generally reputable plant vendors, and most examples are actually Campanula rapunculoides... which is really heinous (not to mention inexcusable for supposed plant professionals who're selling it).

This message was edited Jun 30, 2015 7:19 PM

This message was edited Jun 30, 2015 7:21 PM

It was a typo. I fixed it. OK?

Here is Anemone 'Wild Swan' today. It has been blooming since maybe sometime in late June. Survived terrible neglect and drought conditions. Sadly these were really planted in the wrong place, they are shorter than the flowers in front of them. Also unless you look from the top or rear (shady west side) the viewer totally misses the lovely purple backsides. They face the sunnier east exposure. I think next year they will be moved. Very trouble free, they get no care at all.

Pistil,
Those are lovely....and they bloom June through now!?
A white anemone is on my "want list" for next year to add to my garden. I'll definitely consider white swan! Thanks for the info!

I can attest to the fact that they are beautiful! I tried to buy some last year and, being brand new, they were very expensive and in short supply. Grab them if you find them!

Very nice Pistil! I must also compliment your photo taking skills as they are excellent! Where did you get this anemone?

I had read about it on a thread somewhere, that it bloomed much longer than the typical Japanese anemone, and was shorter too, then a few years ago I found two on the sale rack at a nursery near here. I just had to bring them home. Right now my regular Japanese anemones are blooming, but the Wild Swan started months ago.
It was found in an English garden, I think was released in the U.S. by Monrovia, but I looked on the website and they are not currently selling it. If they grow more for next spring, Monrovia has a neat program where you order plants online and they deliver them to your local nursery that stocks Monrovia products!
I have a propagation book that says anemones can be propagated byu root cuttings Dec-Feb. I might just try that this year, for trades.
Here is a link to Wayside Gardens. Very expensive and currently sold out but more info.


http://www.waysidegardens.com/wild-swan-windflower/p/36409/

Holy cats! Very expensive indeed. Very pretty though.

Well if my root cuttings work I will trade you for something!