Plant of the Week: Canada Anemone
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Written by: Greenway Conservation Trainee Brandon Canaie
Looking for a native plant to fill in that shady part of the yard where nothing seems to grow? Or, are you dealing with a plague of weeds in that underused part of your garden or along the side of your house? Well this week's plant of the week is for you. It's Canada Anemone (Anemone canadensis)!
Canada anemone is loved for its use as a ground cover plant. In conservation, landscaping, and agriculture, cover crops are plants whose main purpose is to prevent soil erosion, maintain soil quality or prevent undesirable weeds from establishing. Canada anemone excels in this role as a hardy native.
Blooming from mid spring to early summer, Canada anemone has beautiful quarter-sized flowers with white petal-like sepals and many yellow stamens in the middle. It has distinctive leaves with 5 deep lobes and pointed tips.
This hardy native tolerates a wide range of moisture, sun exposure, and soil qualities. The rhizomatous growth form will fill in any empty space around it. This makes it a good fit for low maintenance plant it, and forget it scenarios. Because it grows from a rhizome (a sprawling system of underground stems that can sprout from any part of the stem), it's easy to propagate Canada anemone, and fill in any corner you like with a low maintenance native.
This content is free for use with credit to City of Madison Engineering.