Anemone nemorosa (wood anemone, "Yabuichige")

Japanese name: ヤブイチゲ （薮一華）
Scientific name: Anemone nemorosa

[Overview]
A perennial that grows at the edges and on the floor of deciduous broad-leaved forests, often forming colonies.
The rhizome creeps and spreads sideways.
Basal leaves arise from the rhizome.
The basal leaves are ternately compound, with deeply divided leaflets whose lobes are incised.
The basal leaves appear in autumn, and the aboveground part dies back in early summer of the following year; it is one of the so-called spring ephemerals.
The flower stalk is 5–15 cm tall, and the stem bears leaves in whorls of 3.
The leaves on the stem are ternately compound or palmate, and have leaf stalks.
A single flower is borne at the stem tip.
The flowers are about 2–4 cm across and open upward, with 6–7 elliptic sepals that look like petals and are white.
The outside of the sepals may be slightly tinged with red.
There are many stamens, with yellow anthers.
There are also many pistils.
The fruit is an achene.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or by division.
When growing from seed, sow immediately after harvesting the seed.
It prefers sun to partial shade and fertile, well-drained, slightly moist soil.
In poor light, flowering is reduced.
It is weak against heat and dryness, so keep direct sunlight off the base of the plant.
From the time the leaves wither in early summer, move the pot to a cool, shaded place.
It is very cold-hardy, but care is needed against freezing.
During the growing season, water when the soil surface dries so that it never runs dry.
After dormancy, water only enough to keep it from drying out too much.
In spring and autumn, place fertilizer on the soil once a month or apply liquid fertilizer once a week.
Pests and diseases include southern blight, anthracnose, gray mold, aphids and slugs.

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