Growing Wood Anemones from Established Clumps

Why Wood Anemones Earn Their Place

There are few kinder sights in an early spring garden than a drift of wood anemones, their starry white flowers opening wide in the sunshine and closing politely at dusk or before rain. Anemone nemorosa is a true British native, an ancient woodland indicator, and one of the most generous plants you can grow beneath deciduous trees. It asks for very little beyond shade and soil that stays damp while it is in growth, and it repays that with decades of quiet persistence.

The wildlife value is often overlooked. Wood anemones flower in March and April, at a time when queen bumblebees are emerging from hibernation and there is desperately little else in bloom. Hoverflies, solitary bees and the occasional bee fly all visit the flowers for pollen and nectar. A well-established colony is therefore not just a pretty thing but a genuine early-season larder for insects that will go on to pollinate your fruit trees and soft fruit later in the year.

The catch is that wood anemones spread slowly, by creeping rhizomes that extend the colony perhaps a hand's width a year. Buying single rhizomes is dispiriting; lifting and dividing an established clump is far more satisfying and gives you substantial plants straight away.

Timing the Lift

The window matters more than almost anything else. Lift and divide your clumps after flowering has finished but while the leaves are still green. In most of Britain that falls between late May and mid-June, a fortnight later in northern counties and on cold heavy soils. At this stage the rhizomes are plump and full of stored energy, and the plant is not yet collapsing into its summer dormancy.

Leave it too long and the foliage yellows, flops and vanishes. You will then be hunting for brittle brown rhizomes an inch or two underground, and any that you snap and expose to the air will dry out in minutes and never recover. Choose a dull, damp day for the job, or work in the evening after the sun has gone off the patch. Water the clump thoroughly the day before so the soil is soft and the roots are turgid.

Lifting and Dividing a Clump

Use a garden fork rather than a spade. A spade blade will slice clean through the rhizomes and leave you with two injured halves rather than two healthy plants. Insert the fork a comfortable 15cm outside the visible edge of the clump and lever gently upwards all the way round before lifting the whole rootball clear.

• Tease the divisions apart with your fingers wherever you can. The rhizomes snap easily, so patience beats force.
• For a congested clump, push two forks back to back into the middle and lever them apart.
• Aim for sections each carrying at least three or four growing points and a good share of roots.
• Discard the woody, exhausted centre of very old clumps and replant only the vigorous outer pieces.
• Stand divisions in a bucket of moist leafmould or a damp hessian sack. Never let them dry out.
• Replant within an hour or two if you possibly can.

Replanting into Humus-Rich Soil

Wood anemones want dappled shade — under apple trees, beneath a birch or an old hedge, along a north- or east-facing border. The soil should be humus-rich and moist in spring, with reasonable drainage so it never sits waterlogged through winter. Once the plants are dormant in summer they will tolerate a dry spell, but they hate being parched while in leaf.

Before planting, fork in plenty of leafmould or well-rotted garden compost, and add a little horticultural grit if you garden on heavy clay. Set the rhizomes at the same depth they were growing — usually 3–5cm below the surface — and space the divisions 20–30cm apart so they have room to run. Firm the soil gently with your knuckles, water in well with a can fitted with a rose, and finish with a 2–3cm mulch of leafmould, kept clear of the crowns themselves.

Caring for Divisions Through the First Year

• Water during dry spells in the first spring until the foliage dies back naturally.
• Mark the spot with a discreet label or a few short sticks — dormant wood anemones simply vanish.
• Resist the urge to tidy away collapsing foliage. Let it yellow and fall; that is next year's energy going back into the rhizome.
• Top up the leafmould mulch each autumn.
• Keep the hoe and the cultivator well away from the patch.
• Watch for slug damage on young shoots in a wet spring; a night patrol with a torch is often enough.

Building a Colony, and the Wildlife It Brings

Wood anemones combine beautifully with bluebells, wild garlic, primroses, pulmonaria and epimedium, and they look entirely at home threaded through ferns and hellebores in a shady border. Underplant them with snowdrops and cyclamen coum and you will have something in flower from January to May.

Divide your clumps every three or four years to keep them vigorous, and pass divisions on to friends. Never lift plants from the wild — many populations are slow-growing, and some are sterile clones that spread only by rhizome. Take divisions from garden plants or buy from a reputable nursery instead.

Do that, and within a few seasons you will have a colony that feeds the first bees of the year, carpets the ground beneath your trees, and asks for nothing more than a little shade and a soil that holds the spring damp.