Blue flowers of Anemone blanda (winter windflower)

More Spring Blues…

Posted on by Ann Mackay

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Warm sunshine has brought the opening of these blue-mauve Anemone blanda flowers. They’re scattered in amongst perennials that are just beginning to come into growth in a very hot and dry bed. It would probably be better if they had a little more moisture, but they are slowly spreading anyway.

I may plant some more Anemone blanda on the sunny edge of the area where the fruit trees are. They would look pretty in a mix of the blue and some white when combined with blue Scilla. I’m still on the lookout for more early spring bulbs which will suit the area around these little trees. The front edge of the fruit-tree border gets sunshine all day, but further back will be shaded by the leaves on the trees later.

There are already snowdrops in the garden which can be lifted and replanted in the area with more shade. These could be combined with yellow winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis), but I’ve read that, like snowdrops, these are best planted ‘in the green’ rather than as a dry tuber, because those don’t always establish well.

Lebanon striped squill (Puschkinia scilloides var. libanotica) is another possibility for the sunnier part of the fruit tree area. It’s similar in appearance to the related squill of last week’s post, but has white flowers with a blue stripe rather than blue flowers. Another member of the Scilla family, the grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) would be happy in the same area and would provide another early source of nectar and pollen.

In my imagination, I’m envisaging an early spring carpet of mostly blue flowers, with some white and yellow….and bees! (Butterflies and other pollinating insects too, of course. They would all be welcome.) It’s a plan. I hope it’s a successful one! 🐝

Blue flower of Anemone blanda (winter windflower)
An anemone is just starting to open it’s flower, ready for a passing bee…

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Published by Ann Mackay

Photographer, mixed-media art adventurer and completely daft about plants.......

15 thoughts on “More Spring Blues…”

  3. It seems strange that such a richly colored anemone should be designated blanda. I guess it referred to the original Latin senses of the adjective—mild, soft, gentle—rather than the current senses: ‘with little color, excitement or interest; without anything to attract attention.’

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  4. This anemone is a truer blue than any of our natives that are called by that name here; most of the time, I seen them as lavender or purple, and their colors certainly aren’t as vibrant. A garden filled with blue, yellow, and white would appeal to me. The combination reminds me of Van Gogh, somehow, even though his sunflowers focused on yellow. My mother’s kitchen was a vibrant yellow and white; if I had it now, I’d fill it with accents the color of your flowers.

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    1. That would have been a lovely idea for your mother’s kitchen. The blue of these does have a very slight touch of lavender, as so many blue flowers do. (It can be hard to get the more lavender blues to look OK with the stronger, true blues that are a colder colour. I end up putting them in different areas. But most of my flowers are this warmer kind of blue.)

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    1. I’ll have to mark out where I plant any bulbs so that I don’t accidentally dig them up again – wee bits of twig come in handy for that, and keeping our cats off!

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