Anemone Flowers: Planting, Growing, and Caring for Anemones

Available in spring and fall blooming species, anemone flowers (pronounced Ah-NEM-oh-ne) provide charming vibrant blooms throughout the growing season. These low-growing plants produce tall stems of bold flowers, making them perfect for a range of locations across the garden.

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a beginner, this guide will cover everything you need to know about planting, growing, and caring for anemone flowers.

About Anemones

Anemones, also known as wind flowers, produce long-lasting blooms on reaching stems. They are low maintenance making them ideal for borders, containers, raised beds, and naturalized areas.

Native to Asia, Europe, Mediterranean and North America, these sweet flowers are all related to the buttercup.

There are over 200 species of anemones and they come in all shapes and sizes. In general, their foliage grows low to the ground and their flowers appear on thin stems poking out above the leaves.

Note: These fast-growing flowers are apt to spread and some species may be considered invasive. Check with local regulations before planting and keep the plants contained if you don’t wish for them to spread!

What Do Anemones Look Like?

A colorful array of pink, purple and red anemones amongst daisys and green ferns — Lots of beautiful colors of anemones. Credit: imageBROKER.com

The flowers themselves are cup shaped and come in a huge range of colors. Blue, pink, purple, red, white and yellow just to name a few, some are even multi-colored!

Further on in this guide you’ll find our ‘types’ section where you can find out the colors and shapes of individual species.

The delicate flowers are usually just single blooms sitting a top a long and thin stem. Some varieties have slightly frilly shaped petals, others are more smooth edged.

Planting

A handful of pink anemones standing to attention with lots of little buds ready to bloom too — Pink anemones standing to attention. Credit: Alex Manders

Choose a spot with well-draining soil that stays evenly moist. Add compost, leaf mold or aged manure to the soil before planting to improve texture and fertility, if necessary. Anemones don’t like to sit in wet soil (especially in winter), but they will appreciate some moisture during the hottest and driest months of the year.

Anemones will grow best in a location that is mostly sunny but that does receive a bit of shade, especially during the middle of the day.

When to Plant Anemones

In warmer regions (Zones 7 to 9), plant anemones in the fall.
In cold climates (Zones 4 to 6), plant the tubers in early spring, as they will need to settle in before they can tolerate freezing temperatures.

How to Plant Anemones

Soak the tubers overnight in tepid water before planting. This will help them get established sooner after planting.
Plant tubers 3 to 4 inches deep and space them 4 to 6 inches apart.
Water deeply after planting.

Growing Anemones from Seed

Propagating anemones from seed is slow and can be very inconsistent so is usually only attempted by professionals or dedicated amateurs.
After the flowers fade and the seed heads dry out, collect the seeds and sow them in an outdoor cold frame with plenty of well-draining soil.
Only just cover the seeds with the soil and after they sprout, cover with a thick layer of mulch over winter.
Transplant them in the spring.

Growing

Anemones usually take at least one growing season to get established, blooming profusely in the following year.
Keep soil moist (especially in the warmer, drier part of the year), but don’t overwater.
Add organic mulch around the plants to keep soil moist and suppress weeds.
Some of the taller, fall-blooming varieties may need staking.
Deadhead faded flowers to encourage more blooms.
Fertilize in early spring.
If you live in colder regions, tubers can be dug up in the fall and stored indoors over the winter. Dry the tubers before placing in a paper bag and storing in a well-ventilated area.
Divide anemones every 3 to 4 years.

Specific Requirements

A close up of white anemone flowers with a black middle and dew drops on the petals — Delicate anemone flowers. Credit: Alex Manders

These plants are pretty easy to grow and don’t need much attention after you’ve planted them as long as the following conditions are met:

Light - make sure these plants get a minimum of four hours sunlight every day.
Soil - moist, well rained soil is the best.
Water - If rainfall is under 1 inch a week, you’ll need to water these plants slowly, allowing the soil time to absorb the water.
Temperature - very much dependent on the species. They usually like cool temperatures, between 58 - 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pruning

Spring bloomers don’t usually require any pruning, they typically wither away.
Fall bloomers might look messy after the first frost so you can get rid of dead flowers in early winter.

Propagating

Propagating anemones is an easy process, you simply need to dig up the tubers, divide them, and replant.

Do this once your flowers have died back and become fully dormant. For fall-blooming varieties, this will be in the spring, and the reverse for spring-blooming varieties.

If you don’t want to replant them immediately, you can store them in a cool and dry place until you’re ready to replant.

Types

Spring-blooming Anemones

Anemone blanda aka Grecian anemone. This tall variety grows from 4 to 8 inches tall in mounds of daisy-like blooms. The flowers bloom in late spring and comes in blue, pink, white, magenta, mauve, and bicolor. It’s hardy in zones 4 to 9.
Anemone canadensis aka Canada or meadow anemone is smaller, growing 1 to 2 feet tall with upward-facing white flowers. It typically blooms from April to June but spreads quickly and can become invasive. This variety is hardy in zones 3 to 8.
A. coronaria aka poppy anemone is another smaller species, growing 1 to 1.5 feet tall. The single or sometimes double flowers are white, pink, red or blue large and it’s ideally grown in zones 7 to 10.
A. coronaria ‘Hollandia’ has bright red flowers with black centers that bloom all spring.
A. sylvestris aka snowdrop anemone grows from 1 to 1.5 feet tall and produces fragrant, single white flowers with yellow stamens. Many species need plenty of light but this one tolerates shade. It’s a spring-bloomer and is hardy in zones 4 to 8.

Fall-blooming Anemones

Eriocapitella hupehensis, ‘Hadspen Abundance reaches 2 to 3 feet tall and produces masses of 2-toned, pink single flowers. It blooms from August to September and is hardy in Zones 5-8.
E. x hybrida (hybrids of Japanese anemone): heights vary with this perennial.
- ‘Whirlwind’: grows 3 to 4 feet tall, has semi-double white flowers with green edges, blooms August to October and is hardy in Zones 4-8.
- ‘Wild Swan’: grows 1 ½ feet tall with large white flowers with lavender reverse sides. This species has a long bloom time from June to mid fall and is hardy in Zones 6 to 8.

Harvesting

Anemones as Cut Flowers

Anemones make excellent cut flowers. Harvest the flowers in the early morning.
Flowers should be harvested when they have just started to open. Petals should be just beginning to separate.
Change the water in the vase every 3 to 4 days.
Blooms will last up to 2 weeks.

Gardening Products

Wit and Wisdom

Anemones belong to the buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.
The genus name is derived from the Greek word anemos, meaning “wind.”
The petals close up at night and reopen in the morning.
In Irish and English folk tales, many believed that fairies would sleep within the petals as they closed up at night.
This plant containers protoanemonin which is moderately toxic to animals and humans.

Pests/Diseases

Anemones don’t suffer from any serious problems, here are a few that you might find your plants suffering with. We have guides for each of these, so if you’d like further information, search Almanac for the individual guides.