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Japanese anemones tend to go a bit mad here. They have lovely flowers that grace the late summer and autumn garden. But they can spread – oh, how they can spread! So it’s probably not a good idea for me to fall in love with the anemone that you see here.
This is one of the ‘Swan’ series of anemones, which began with the single-flowered ‘Wild Swan’. This first plant was immensely popular, becoming the RHS Chelsea Flower Show plant of the year for 2011. Since then, further cultivars have been grown in the ‘Swan’ family, and I think the plant here is likely to be the semi-double ‘Ruffled Swan’.
Ruffled Swan is a taller and more vigorous cultivar than Wild Swan, so might be inclined to try to take over my garden, just as the pink Japanese anemones ‘September Charm’ and ‘Hadspen Abundance’ do. For years I’ve been trying to keep these two under control, which works for a while until some pops up somewhere where it’s not wanted. (Hadspen Abundance was in the garden when we came and I was pleased to see it. That was before I knew that some Japanese anemones want to rule the world! And I brought a pot of September Charm from my old garden, where it had quietly sat in a small clump before running amok here.)
So, despite its beauty, I won’t be looking to buy this particular plant for the garden. I see that there are, however, some smaller cultivars with the same attractive violet-blue reverse to the petals. The most compact is said to be ‘Elfin Swan’, which would probably grow well in a container. It’s a ‘definite maybe’, but first of all I need to see if I can move some of the larger pink anemones into big pots. (I notice that the dry weather has made these much less vigorous this year, so maybe this is my chance to end their takeover of my garden!) 🌼
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
I confess I sometimes smile when I hear gardeners fussing about flowers that are doing the equivalent of sticking their tongues out at their people before doing exactly what they please! Obviously, limitations of space and such mean that run-amok flowers can be a problem, but I must say that of all you’ve shown, this is one I’d be happy to have spreading itself around.
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Hehe, yes, there is a lot of amusement value in flowers behaving just as they wish, and these have the compensation of being very beautiful. 🙂
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Very pretty, but my garden’s already chaotic; I definitely don’t need another good-looking specimen intent on world domination! 😊
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I know the feeling – I’m always trying to keep the peace between different plants and trying to make sure the little ones don’t get swamped!
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This ‘swan’ variety is beautiful, though invasive!
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It is beautiful – such a temptation! 🙂
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I do have ‘Wild Swan’ and she is not at all invasive, in fact she sadly is invaded herself by the bronze fennel. I really should try and dig her out and relocate her as she is such a beauty.
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That’s encouraging, Jude! From what I’ve read, ‘Wild Swan’ is better behaved than ‘Ruffled Swan’. I’d love to know how it compares with the pink ones! (I do have the plain white ‘Honorine Jobert’, but it’s in a patch of very poor, dry soil, so doesn’t have much encouragement to spread.)
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You do make it sound like we’re back in the 1930s and ’40s and a Japanese invasion is taking place.
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Thankfully it’s just plants….!
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