What is correct? ...Anemone hupehensis, Anemone hupehensis var. japonica, or Anemone × hybrida I am more of a foliage person, than a flower person in my garden, so I need your help. (although I have friends with amazing flower garden, so I am not trying to knock them). I was at the Cleveland Botanical Garden and snapped this picture of a Japanese anemone. Only the common name was given and I wanted to include the correct botanical name for my flickr page. Thanks for your help!
More than one plant is called Japanese anemone in gardens, with not all the different botanical names being synonyms. The wild species are told apart by specific morphological characters. And there are named horticultural forms involved, sometimes sold and planted under the wrong names. Your picture looks like one I have here that came labeled 'September Charm', but clearly was not once it started flowering.
One possibility is A. tomentosa 'Robustissima', the clues being, in addition to color, the 5-only sepals and the very hairy buds. The leaves should be densely woolly on the undersides if it's this. I have grown it for many years and it has proved extremely vigorous, quite invasive even. A. tomentosa is one of the wild species in this "Japanese anemone" group, others being A. hupehensis and A. vitifolia. A. hupensis var. japonica is possibly of hybrid oirigin.
Thank you Ron for your insight. Thanks Tony. I will be there next weekend and will check out the leaves for the dense wooly undersides. It did have lots of off-springs sprouting up all around it which would correspond with the quite invasive nature.
I figured mine was probably A. tomentosa also, and likewise have found it too rambunctious - as plants of this group often are, with the result that recommendations such as planting only on woodland verges or in other intermediate situations have been made. I put mine in a narrow bed in an entry area and it promptly grew into other plants, ended up being concentrated along the walk where it flops over it and blocks it. I started not wanting it there as soon as I saw the tinting of the flowers, the true item should have been much more attractive in this respect.
