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[This is one in what has now become an almost-weekly series of postings inspired by Abigail Rorer, Mimpish Squinnies: Reginald Farrer's Short Guide to Worthless Plants. Rorer's book includes prints of fourteen plants Farrer considered worthless-- an interesting hybrid of botanically accurate and...different. You can see her work, including all fourteen mimpish squinnies, here: http://www.theloneoakpress.com/prints/newer.html ]
Anemone demissa is definitely not a squinny. I don't believe that Farrer painted any plants he did not fall down and worship, and this is his rendering of Anemone demissa, reproduced in E. H. M. Cox, The Plant Introductions of Reginald Farrer. There is no listing for this plant, however, so apparently although it has a collection number it is not one of his introductions.
A. demissa, watercolor by Reginald Farrer, in
E. H. M. Cox, The Plant Introductions of Reginald Farrer
I found only the brief notation that "[T]his is a Chinese variety of A. narcissiflora, q.v." for it in The English Rock Garden, and a quick search of my Acrobat files for Farrer's two travelogues for his first expedition (On the Eaves of the World and The Rainbow Bridge) did not yield a mention, either. Perhaps it will turn up in one of his dispatches to Gardeners' Chronicle, or his more botanically-inclined report of his first expedition to the Royal Garden Society.
Here, instead, is his description of the generality of anemones from The English Rock Garden, the bit about A. narcissiflora, and a screencap of A. demissa page and text from the Ulster Branch of the Alpine Garden Society, plus a scrap from a Gardeners' Chronicle dispatch that may refer to this plant. Note how the image of the plant with background mountains on the Ulster page (after the jump) shows the how accurately Farrer portrayed the plant in its environment.
It appears that this is a rare pink variety. Most of the sites and images I found on the web show white flowers. I haven't identified the variety this is, but the week is young.
( show text and image )
Anemone demissa is definitely not a squinny. I don't believe that Farrer painted any plants he did not fall down and worship, and this is his rendering of Anemone demissa, reproduced in E. H. M. Cox, The Plant Introductions of Reginald Farrer. There is no listing for this plant, however, so apparently although it has a collection number it is not one of his introductions.
A. demissa, watercolor by Reginald Farrer, in
E. H. M. Cox, The Plant Introductions of Reginald Farrer
I found only the brief notation that "[T]his is a Chinese variety of A. narcissiflora, q.v." for it in The English Rock Garden, and a quick search of my Acrobat files for Farrer's two travelogues for his first expedition (On the Eaves of the World and The Rainbow Bridge) did not yield a mention, either. Perhaps it will turn up in one of his dispatches to Gardeners' Chronicle, or his more botanically-inclined report of his first expedition to the Royal Garden Society.
Here, instead, is his description of the generality of anemones from The English Rock Garden, the bit about A. narcissiflora, and a screencap of A. demissa page and text from the Ulster Branch of the Alpine Garden Society, plus a scrap from a Gardeners' Chronicle dispatch that may refer to this plant. Note how the image of the plant with background mountains on the Ulster page (after the jump) shows the how accurately Farrer portrayed the plant in its environment.
It appears that this is a rare pink variety. Most of the sites and images I found on the web show white flowers. I haven't identified the variety this is, but the week is young.
( show text and image )
