Snowdrop Anemone
"Spirit of Spring, thy coverlet of snow
Hath fallen from thee, with its fringe of frost,
And where the river late did overflow
Sway fragile white anemones, wind-tossed."
-Lady Olive Eleanor Custance
(1874-1944)
(1874-1944)
Anemone sylvestris or Snowdrop Windflower is native to the Caucasus region. This alpine wildflower is cold-hardy to Zone 4, but not terribly heat-hardy. Our mild weather on Puget Sound (Zone 8) is about as warm as it can stand.
It wants partial to bright shade, but will not bloom as well in deep shade, & will look scruffy if in too much sun.Even though it'll spread like a sun of a gun if placed in more sun, but needs lots more water not to get ugly, & in the main needs some shade in order to remain fresh & for its flowers to last longest.
In sun it can behave as a spring ephemeral & withdraw underground when the weather gets warm, but in cool shade it will have a very long flowering season.
It can be sheered whenever it doesn't look quite good enough, & will refresh itself rapidly. If it likes its location it'll spread rhizomitously forming at least a foot-wide clump, fully naturalizing.
The buds occur on bent stems, so dangle like snowdrops, but turn upward (or at least outward) when they open.
Fragrant flowers are white with yellow stamins, about an inch & a half to two inches wide, delicate with five round petals each, occurring singly on twelve or eighteen inch tall wiry stems.
The flowers flutter butterfly-like in the slightest breeze, moving above the eight to ten inch high deeply lobed & dense foliage.
It blooms mainly in mid-spring, but can rebloom during summer if not heat-exhausted. It requires almost no attention other than to be kept moist.