Anemone - carried away by the wind

The beginning of May. You will enter the forest and stop astonished. As if white clouds fell to the ground. Among the juicy spring greens are the white spots of the first spring. You will bend, you will tear a flower and you will admire a pure-white color with a mauve-pink tint. This is an anemone. Most often in our forests there is an anemone oak or white, less often - forest. So you want to take this elegant flower in the palm of your hand and transfer it to your home garden. Well, let's try to do it.

Anemone (Anemone) is a spectacular perennial of the family of buttercups. The name comes from the Greek word "anemos" - the wind, since many species of windswept are so tender petals that they fluctuate and often fall off at the slightest blow of the breeze. Usually it is a low herbaceous plant with rhizomes or tubers.

About 150 species belong to this genus from the family of buttercups. Flower growers cultivate both wild-growing and cultural anemones. Let us dwell only on spring-springing, which grow in the mid-zone conditions and hibernate well.

First of all, it's Anemone coronaria, which pleases with its flowering from spring to late summer. It breeds quite easily with tuberous segments of the rhizome. Her flowers are the largest of the famous anemones. They reach 8 cm in diameter and are distinguished by various shades of red, white, blue, pink, lilac, lilac, bluish, pale yellow. A crown has very effective terry forms.

This species is quite frost-resistant. The location of the anemone loves the light. The best approach is a sparse shadow of trees with a loose crown. In one place can grow 5-6 years. The soil must be well drained, moistened, loose, fertilized with old humus. Plant rhizomes at a depth of 5 cm.

Anemone (Anemone) An oak (Anemona nemorosa) is our usual woody graceful early-flowering plant with a creeping horizontal rhizome. In the spring it forms a continuous, closed carpet. Blossoms very abundantly in late April-May for 20-25 days. Forms with double and semi-double flowers are known. Prefers shady places.

Anemone (anemone) forest (Anemona sylvestris) is less common, and in some countries (for example, in Belarus) is a protected, "Red Book" flower. It is a rhizome with branched flower stems up to 50 cm high. The flowers are single, planar, 3-4 cm in diameter, slightly drooping, fragrant, white. Blossom A. forest at the end of May and June, flowering time - a short (10-15 days). Strongly grows on rich in lime and moist soil and can depress the neighboring, not so viable plants.

Anemone udensis (Anemone udensis) - low, not higher than 10-20 cm, a plant with a thin creeping rhizome. Leaves trehressekchennye, peduncles solitary, thin, sinuous, carry one white flower 2-3.5 cm in diameter. This anemone blossoms later than the rest, in the second half of May, during 18-20 days.

Often, flower growers cultivate the apennine anemone (Anemone apennina). Its large beautiful flower consists of 8-14 narrow blue petals. It blooms in early spring. Prefers rich in humus fertile soils in the penumbra. It develops well in the shade of deciduous shrubs, where there is enough humus in the earth and where much sunlight penetrates in the spring.

Anemone Caucasian anemone (Anemone caucasica) with large blue flowers is similar to the apennine anemone. The plant usually barely reaches a height of 20 cm, blooms in April-May. It develops well in dry, open places.

Anemone spring (Anemone eranthoides) is a low-growth plant. Blooms in March-April. From the red-brown buds appear creamy yellow flowers 1-3 cm in diameter, located on the stems in pairs. This miniature plant, about 20 cm high, prefers humus-rich soil and scattered sunlight.

Anemone bland (Anemone blanda) is a plant up to 15 cm tall, with a tuberous, oblong, short-cylindrical thick rhizome. The leaves are cut three times. Flowers are blue, up to 3.5 cm in diameter. Blooms in May. Winter prefers under easy shelter. She needs loose fertile soil and partial shade. Winter-hardy, but cover is mandatory. Transplantation is desirable at the end of vegetation (early summer).

Anemone garden (Anemone hortensis) flowers up to 5 cm in diameter, with red, pink or whitish with purple stamens. The plant blooms in early spring, its height is 15-30 cm. It has a clearly expressed period of rest in summer. The plant is low-resistant, therefore it requires strong insulation by a dry leaf for the winter.

All anemone breeds multiply well by seeds, or by dividing a bush, as well as parts of rhizomes and tubers. Rhizomes should be planted in the autumn to a depth of 3-5 cm. The plants are usually divided in the middle of summer, before losing the foliage, or in the spring - before and during flowering. Seeds should be sown immediately after harvest or in the winter in boxes. Since seedlings do not tolerate transplants and pickings, it is best to sow rarely or thin out thickened crops.

Planting is necessary to mulch with humus or loose peat, and best of all - foliage of broad-leaved trees: oak, linden, maple, apple.

All kinds of anemones are moderately in need of moisture. They grow well in moist areas, but necessarily with good drainage. Poorly tolerated stagnant moisturizing.

Victor MAVRYSHCHEV, Cand. Biol. sciences,
Minsk. Photo of the author.

About the healing properties of anemones, Avicenna wrote

• Squeezed her juice with honey is useful for opacity in the eye, thorns and traces of ulcers in the eye. If you pull it into your nose, it cleans your head and brain, and the root (anemones) chews to draw moisture out of your head
• Anemone is boiled and smeared with a tumor that has not yet hardened.
• Dried anemone helps with contaminated ulcers and cicatrizes them, and also helps with peeling and is a cleanser for ulcers.
• If you boil the leaves of anemones with its stems and barley stems and eat, this medicine chases milk from women.