For those Anemone lovers out there, my friend and occasional guest blogger HerbDoc has discovered an interesting alternative to Anemone blanda:
About a year ago in August I was visiting a local theatre which has beautiful and bountiful perennial gardens. One of the plants that immediately grabbed my attention was Anemone tomentosa “Robustissima.” The only anemone I had previously grown was Anemone blanda, known to most as Grecian windflower. The small tubers grow into low mats, and I was far from pleased with its hardiness.
Anemone tomentosa led me to my books to identify it and its hardiness. At the time I spotted it, it was covered with honeybees which I’m always trying to attract to my garden. The entire plant also seemed pest free. Sure enough, my research indicated that not only is it free of unwanted pests, including rabbits and deer, but pollinators of all kinds adore it.
Named after Anemone, the daughter of the winds in Grecian mythology, it is easy to grow in sun or partial shade in neutral soil and is hardy to Zone 3a. It grows in a low mound of grape like green leaves with taller branching stems of soft pink, cupped flowers. (24-36”)
If you decide to grow it, give it room to thrive and mass it for a gorgeous display during August until frost. It is very robust, hence its name, and will spread, but not in an annoying manner. It can be propagated by division of the root ball in the spring.
Digging RI 
Those are really pretty flowers. Does it bloom all summer?
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No, only later, beginning in Sept. But to have something pink in bloom when everything else is yellow is cool, don’t you think?
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I sure do! Enjoy while you have them.
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That is a beautiful plant! I will have to look for it. I love anemones and I have a couple growing in my garden. They tend to spread over time, but not too aggressively. I do remove some extra growth over the summer, so other plants are not overtaken, but it’s not a big deal.
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Hearing the accolades, I think I’d better get myself one of these.
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Mine starts blooming in mid August and continue until frost. I love the way it opens into little pink cups, and that the honeybees actually have to wriggle themselves into the flowers before they fully open! It’s also nice to have a pink flower when all else seems to have reverted to the autumn palette.
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