Japanese Anemone

Comment faire pousser: anémones japonaises

Few plants can send up a succession of flowers from August until late October and look elegant at every stage, whether tight bud, long-lasting flower or neatly spherical seed head.

But the Japanese anemone manages it perfectly, and there are few more beautiful forms than 'Hadspen Abundance'.

This distinctive plant reaches 90cm (3ft) tall and was discovered at Hadspen House in Somerset in the late 1970s by plantsman Eric Smith.

Beth Chatto was the first person to list it, in about 1980. It's unusual because the flowers are made up of two smaller dark-pink petals and three slightly larger, paler ones, set against dark foliage.

This two-tone effect gives the plant a shimmering presence in the border, a unique feature among Japanese anemones. (Many plants sold as 'Hadspen Abundance' are in fact pink doubles.)

The term Japanese anemone is misleading. A. hupehensis is actually a native of Hupeh province in eastern China, but it was grown in Japanese gardens for centuries, hence the confusion.

Robert Fortune (1812-1880) introduced it into Europe in 1844, having apparently discovered it running between the tombstones in a Shanghai graveyard.

It was one of several long-lived, ethereal plants used to commemorate the dead. In the garden setting, too, they seem to enjoy popping up through stonework or paving close to buildings or paths.

All plants given the species name hupehensis are distinctive; the five rounded, evenly spaced petals form branching heads of simply shaped flowers.

If several are grown together they will produce seedlings and most named forms are natural selections, rather than deliberate crosses.

A. hupehensis var. japonica 'Bressingham Glow', bred by Alan Bloom in 1968, is shorter than most with deep-pink flowers.

There is also an excellent German variety bred by Wilhelm Pfitzer in 1902: 'Prinz Heinrich' has deep-pink, semi-double flowers and quilled petals. The much newer 'Pamina', also from Germany, has purplish-pink, semi-double flowers and is one of the prettiest of all, though I have failed to establish a good colony as yet.

Also filed under the name of Japanese anemone is A. x hybrida, first found growing at the Chiswick Garden of the RHS in 1848. It is thought to be a natural hybrid between A. elegans, A. vitifolia and A. hupehensis and has many quilled, uneven petals, and flowers later in the year for a shorter time.

Some forms are a washed-out blue-pink, others have messy, distorted flowers, and are best avoided.

The elegant A. x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' has neat, white flowers with a boss of golden-yellow stamens set round a green, pin-eyed centre. It is superb against a north or east wall, as it lights up a shady spot.