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I’ve seen the usual white form of Anemone nemerosa, the wood anemone, both in the wild and in gardens. However, I didn’t know that there were cultivated forms of this pretty wildflower until I came across this delightful blue-flowered plant in a woodland garden.
Anemone nemorosa is a native wildflower in the UK. The white-flowered plants of the species can be found in woodlands around the country in early spring.
This cultivar is, I think, either Anemone nemorosa ‘Alenii’ or ‘Robinsoniana’, both with lavender-blue flowers and attractive deeply-cut foliage. There are other blue-flowered cultivars, including the similarly-coloured ‘Lismore Blue’ and ‘Hannah Gubbay’, which both have large flowers. There is also the darker-coloured ‘Royal Blue’. (If my garden offered the right conditions, there would be plenty to choose from!)
As a woodland plant, Anemone nemorosa prefers a site in dappled shade, in humusy soil that is well-drained but moist and cool. These are far from the conditions in my own very sunny garden, so I’ll be happy to just enjoy them in other people’s gardens. Or if I am lucky, perhaps I’ll see the white ones in the wild again.
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
Do you know whether some genetic trait in the original white ones facilitated the making of blue cultivars?
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That’s an interesting question, Steve, and I had no idea of the answer, so had a little search. That led me to this interesting article: https://plantsinparticular.co.uk/plant-portraits/anemone-nemorosa/ Apparently the cultivars were selected from natural variations, so yes, your suggestion was right. (And apparently the correct name for the plant is now Anemonoides nemrorosa…argh, plant name changes are difficult to keep up with and always harder to spell! 😆)
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Speaking of Anemonoides nemrorosa, I just checked and found that English uses the Latin-derived adjective nemorous to mean ‘full of woods or groves, wooded, woody.’
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I have never come across it, but I like it! 🙂
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It’s good to hear that the unfamiliar nemorous didn’t make you tremorous.
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Hehe!
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Lovely subtle blue colour!
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I really liked the colour and I would be tempted tp try to grow it if I had suitable conditions here. It’s a bit too hot and dry for it though!
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As soon as I saw this flower, I thought of our prairie celestial, which has a similar shape and that same soft blue. The prairie celestial is native, but I’ve only seen it in the wild a couple of times. It’s not exactly rare, but it doesn’t grow in my area. I can see why you’d be tempted toward these, despite your less than perfect conditions for them.
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That’s a very pretty little flower! I think I may (at last!) be learning not to be carried away by temptation over plants…maybe! As it gets hotter and drier in summer, my choice of plants has to be more careful. But we’re also getting more rain over winter, so that means that I have to make sure that any drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants will not be sitting in wet soil. Complications!
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It’s the Goldilocks approach to gardening. This area’s too dry; this area’s too wet, but this one is just right!
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LOL, I think you’re right, Linda! 🙂
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