We are about a week away from getting enough blooms to begin delivery! Thanks to all who have signed up. We have just a couple of spots left for Friday delivery for the early spring season.

 This is the first in a series of blogs introducing some of the flowers we grow.

Anemone (Anemone Coronaria) is a late winter/early spring bloomer for us in Columbia. The corms (bulbs) come in many colors and in single double flower forms. In addition to the longer stemmed varieties that we use for cut flowers, there are short-stemmed versions that are nice to have in the garden.   

All types can survive our winters in the ground but the flowers don’t do well in the rain. If you don’t have time to be concerned about every bloom, you simply dead head those that have gotten wet. Otherwise, you can grow them under cover to protect them from our wet spring weather. Each plant will bloom several times while “in season”, so even if a flower gets drenched, all is not lost.

Anemone does best when the daytime temps are in the mid-60’s and the nights are in the 40’s. This translates to March for us. They will keep blooming until the daytime temps are consistently in the 70’s. After the heat comes on, they fade away until November or so.  Then they green up and take up the sun until the March blooms.

There is a proper time to cut every flower in order to maximize its vase life.  For Anemones, the right time is when the collar under the bloom is about a half an inch from the base of the bloom. They may wilt if you cut them sooner.  When properly cut, they will last a good week in a vase.

If you are thinking that you knew of anemone as another flower, you are right. There is a shrub-like perennial called Japanese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis). The blooms look very similar to the bulb form but they bloom in a spray in the fall.  This is why botanists revert to Latin names for flowers. Many common names apply to multiple plants but each has its own unique Latin name.  

What do you think of this flower? Have you grown it? Is there another flower that you like to see this time of year?

I hope you are as excited for Spring as I am!

Best,

Linda