A Gardening Life – April 14
Every year in the early spring I fall in love with Anemone blanda. “I should plant more of these,” I say to myself. The intense purplish blue flowers would be appreciated any month that they might open in the garden, but they are especially valued in April when flowers aren’t very abundant.
This Anemone, also called Grecian windflower, is usually sold as tubers in the fall. The plants spread and sometimes self-sow, and later in the spring they go dormant and disappear. This is the problem when it comes to buying and planting more Anemones. Not only is it an “out of sight, out of mind” situation, and I forget to buy new tubers, but I also forget where additional plants should be located.
Perhaps the solution is to map out and write down such future plantings now. “Place more A. blanda to the left of the daylilies that are in front of the climbing rose,” for example. A reasonable strategy, certainly, but one that I’m not likely to follow up on.
It’s spring, and there are peas to plant, clumps of Carex to cut down, and the seemingly ever-present oak leaves to rake out of the perennial beds. Anemone blanda makes me smile as I tend to spring plantings and cleanups.
Do I appreciate this windflower any less because there isn’t a garden filled with purple blue flowers? Not at all. Perhaps this plant is the early spring equivalent of love or ice cream…you can always use more, but it’s also completely satisfying to just appreciate what you have.
