Anemone virginiana
Origin:
Eastern North America
Improvement status: Wild
Seeds per packet: ~125
BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED
Life cycle: Perennial
Also called tall anemone, Virginia anemone, or just thimbleweed, tall thimbleweed is an eastern North American native perennial most often found in shady woodland environments (though it can handle some sun too, in your garden). A member of the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), the entire plant is toxic to humans — and the fresh juice from the plant can even be caustic — but the plant nevertheless has a long history of (incredibly careful) medicinal use. We don't recommend any beginning herbalists use it, but the more experienced among you might like to try. One account online says they like to a few drops of tincture for people who are in acute mental or emotional distress for its calming effects on the nervous system (but as you might expect, it's easy to go overboard — and if you calm the nervous system too much the results can be disastrous). But tall thimbleweed still has much to recommend it as a native plant for your shade garden or any semi-shady spot: it's charmingly beautiful, offers summer and winter interest, and pollinators and other beneficial insects adore it.
Like many of its buttercup family cousins, the flower of tall thimbleweed is atypical. Its "petals" are not actually petals at all (it has none), but are called "petaloid-sepals," because they are overgrown sepals (usually the green, leafy structures at the base of a flower, making up its "calyx"). The plant blooms for about a month in early summer. The thimble of its name is the pistil, made up of numerous little spiky fruits ("achenes"), surrounded by small pollen-covered stamens. It's the pollen that attracts all those beneficial insects — for the plant makes no nectar at all. Virginia anemone is officially a recommended species by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation as a pollinator and beneficial insect plant. Its evergreen basal leaves (which somewhat resemble greater celandine or some kind of wild geranium) provide year-round groundcover and habitat. The seeds, which are born in tufts of fluff and spread by the wind, are valuable fall and winter feed for birds. Hummingbirds are said to use the seed fluff to build nests!
This western Massachusetts-grown seed comes to us from our friend Eric Toensmeier, author, scholar, farmer, organizer, and all-around excellent human.
GROWING TIPS: Very versatile, grows in sun to full shade, though really thrives in shade. Will even grow in dry sand. Seeds are best sown in fall or winter, but 30-60 days of cold-moist stratification should also do the trick. Grows in USDA zones 2-8.
