January Wildflower Wednesday: Anemone virginiana

I love this photo of its winter curls...before it goes all fluffy.

I have had a love-hate relationship with a few plants over the years and Tall Thimbleweed was once one of them. It's been so long since I felt that way that I am having trouble remembering exactly why. Perhaps it was its tendency to spread too easily like other Ranunculous/Buttercup family members. But, these days I appreciate all its fine qualities, including its self sowing.

If you want a native that offers a long season of bloom and more than a season of interest, Anemone virginiana will be worth a second look. It was for me. It's a charming native that has year round interest, starting with that good leaf shape that many Buttercup family members bring to a garden. I love the lobed leaves and so appreciate them during the "green time" in my habitat. It's an added bonus that they're evergreen in my Zone 6b/7a garden during a "normal winter". 

Anemone virginiana aka Tall Thimbleweed has a long flowering period from early to mid-summer. In summer the buds are displayed on slender stems above clusters of attractive lobed leaves that are clustered in a whorl halfway up the stem. The small white spring blooming flowers  have five petal-like sepals and greenish-yellow central stamens around a central dome. Mining bees, small carpenter bees, sweat bees, green sweat bees and yellow faced bee will be found visiting the unique flower. (source)

Anemone virginiana is another one of those excellent native plants that happily grows in sun or shade. It pops up all over my garden, and that's fine, but it looks best in a larger planting where the cool flowers and great looking seed heads really pop. Fully grown the plant is about 3 foot tall in bloom with a 20 inch spread.

source

Not long after flowering, green, thimble-like fruit replaces the flowers.

The prickly thimbles last a long time and eventually change to cottony tufts. The seeds are wind born and you can expect to see plants growing near and far from the mother plant. Plants are easily transplanted if you don't like where they've planted themselves.

January 25, 2016  cottony seedheads still have seed for winter interest

Tall Thimbleweed seems to be happy in  both sun and semi shade in my habitat garden. Wildflower experts recommend that you plant it in a loamy soil that retains moisture, but, it is drought tolerant here at Clay and Limestone. You can collect seeds and direct sow them in the fall (they need moist, cold stratification) or let the wind carry them around your garden.

To sum up its charms:

• This charming native Anemone can be found in dry rocky areas, on wooded slopes and in open woodlands across Canada and the eastern US (Zone 3 to 8). 
• It blooms late spring to early summer and has small green-white flowers atop tall stems. 
• It will tolerate full sun to light shade. 
• While it is drought tolerant that does not mean xeric. 
• To be happiest it needs well drained and moist soil. 
• Although, it's not a super high wildlife value plant, it attracts small bees, hoverflies and it has been said that birds eat the seeds. Not a deer or mammal food.
• Expect to be charmed by the flowers, but, astonished by the thimble-shaped seed heads that remain intact from fall through late winter and sometimes into the spring. Now that's talking about year round interest.
     

Are you charmed by Tall Thimbleweed or unimpressed? What's your experience with this unique wildflowering native?  

xoxogail

The Particulars

Botanical name: Anemone virginiana

Common Name: Tall thimbleweed

Type: Herbaceous perennial

Family: Ranunculaceae

Native Range: Range extends throughout Central and Eastern portions of the United States and into Canada. Scattered populations exist further south in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Habitat: This native is found in moist meadows and prairies, savannas, moist open woodlands an along the edges of woods and thickets. 

 Zone: 2 to 8 

Height: 1.00 to 2.00 feet 

Spread: 1.00 to 1.50 feet 

Bloom Time: April to May Bloom 

Description: White, greenish white flower. Thimble shaped seedhead

Sun: Full sun to part shade 

Water: Dry to medium 

Maintenance: Medium, prefers moist but can take dry times

Flower: Showy 

Tolerate: Deer, resistant; Drought, Heavy Shade, Dry Soil, Shallow-Rocky Soil

Wildlife value: attracting pollinators, providing food for birds, and supporting biodiversity. The leaves are a host plant for the larvae of veiled ear moth and one-lined sparganothis

Comments: Poisonous to humans and may cause dermatitis.

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. I am so glad you stopped by. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers.

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener, Tennessee Naturalist and nature writer in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.

Wildflower Wednesday: Hardy Blue Mist Flower

Timing is everything in a wildflower garden.

Right as I'm wondering if the garden has too much of a yellow scene going on Conoclinium coelestinum or Blue Mist flower begins its long bloom time. The soft-blue, fuzzy flowers are a perfect color counterpoint to the Susan's golden presence. 

I removed too much of it when I expanded the agastache and coreopsis presence in the garden~I'll fix it!

Many gardeners under appreciate the charms of Hardy Ageratum. They consider it too weedy and aggressive for their gardens, until it blooms and then they, like me, begin wondering why the heck they haven't more of it!

I love the small, soft-blue, fuzzy flowers that begin blooming in late August

Conoclinium coelestinum is a tall, graceful, eastern North American native wildflower that begins blooming in late August (Middle South) and continues through early fall. The lilac-blue flowers add a softness to late  summer and fall gardens when rough and tumble flowers like the Susans, Goldenrods, Cup Plant, Verbesinas, Joe-Pye weeds and Ironweeds are making a large and loud scene. It's especially beautiful when allowed to naturalize and make its own big statement.

There's the rub, you have to be willing to let this plant do its thing to get the big effect of it's lovely misty presence. That means living with the rough, but not unattractive leaves until the summer wains and the blooming begins.

 flat topped flower clusters top the attractive red stems make great cut flowers

The tall red stems are place holders while you're waiting and trust me the wait is worth it.

Doesn't it look smashing with the gold flowers of Gaillardia? You can use it anywhere. I like it with the Rudbeckias, Coreopsis, the ex-asters and I'm thinking that it would be nice with grasses or edging the woodland garden. The possibilities are endless...except extremely dry soil.

A nectar rich plant

Butterflies and bees are drawn to the nectar-rich flowers, while birds eat the seeds. If you want more, and once you see it massed you will, it's easily propagated from seeds, cuttings, rootball divisions or layering. It thrives best in a well-drained acidic to neutral soils in a sunny environment. If you want easy care this is a great wildflower, but, it does naturalize easily spreading by rhizome and seed (and is pulled out just as easily).

compact corymbs or clusters  with up to 70 flowers per cluster

Whether it's a bluish purple flower or a purplish blue flower~It a lovely plant for a natural garden and by late summer forms a open mound about 2 feet tall (a little taller in shade). But, don't rule it out for your more formal gardens, cut it back by half in early summer and you'll have a nice clump by early fall. Those tall red stems keep it from sprawling and looking messy. 

Someone wrote that its the perfect color for the low light of the autumn sun. I think so, too.

I've used words like naturalizing, rhizome spread, messy, and rough and tumble, but, please, don't be afraid of this plant...It's a beauty and you won't regret adding it to your wildflower garden.

xoxogail

Here's the particulars!

Moist soil; sun to partial shade; found in moist woods, thickets, and along stream banks from New Jersey, west to Wisconsin and Kansas, and south to Texas and Florida.

Attracts Wildlife

•	Beneficial insects
•	Butterflies~A great nectar source but, not a host plant.

Welcome to Clay and Limestone's Wildflower Wednesday celebration. WW is about sharing and celebrating wildflowers from all over this great big, beautiful world. Join us on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Remember, it doesn't matter if they are in bloom or not; and, it doesn't matter if we all share the same plants. It's all about celebrating wildflowers. Please leave a comment when you add your url to Mr Linky. 
 

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.