It was a joy to see these pretty, little, daisy-like flowers awakening from bud to fully open blooms. Their colour pales as they fully open and age, creating a lovely mix of shades. True to their folk name (windflower) they were bobbing so much on the spring breeze that I thought they might turn out to be just artistic blurs, despite waiting patiently for a lull.
Their name, Anemone blanda Blue Shades, turns a blind eye to their distinctly purplish tinge. Whatever their shade, they’re surely not the ‘bland’ our automatic spellcheck (never at its best when it comes to plant names) tries to insist on. Not for me, at least.
These pure white anemones look especially bold, their sun-facing heads shining upwards in contrast to the nodding blue scillas around them. My favourite of all are the pink ones with the white centres but, sods law, I haven’t seen any this year. They must be much rarer than the others, or slower to spread. But I’m nit-picking, because they’re all mood-enhancing.
Shared for the weekly photo challenge: awakening.
Susan Rushton 
How lovely to see such brightly coloured flowers at this time of year 🙂
Yes, it was lovely to see them.
I so agree that there needs to be a way to name that color. It’s not just blue at the beginning; that purple depth makes it something different. I am completely awed by the demure, down-looking flower in the top photo; it seems to be blushing in all the hues. Thank you not only for “sods law,” but also for “splashed out” — both will get a workout from me, I just know it.
I dare say this makes me a bad influence…
Two very dear old friends were visiting, and I passed along “splashed out” to them. They were most enthusiastic. We thank you for your “bad influence”!
Do you remember ‘Windflowers’ by Seals and Croft? It is about something much less pleasant, but I though it was about these when I was a kid.
Nope, that one passed me by 🙂
It is probably better that way. It is not happy.
Ok. So they LOOK like daisies. Apart from the fact that someone gave them a different name and says they’re not, why aren’t they? I suppose that’s a dumb question. But often when I look at flower pictures I have that thought across varieties of flowers.
Not dumb at all. They are daisy (shaped) flowers and I’m sure daisy would be as good a folk name as any other. They grow from blackish, lumpy corms unlike ‘real’ daisies if it helps!
Yes it does. I suppose that’s the way it is with a lot of plants that look the same — but aren’t. Thank you, Susan.
That purple color is an attention-getter.
Ω
It is, I agree.
I love the blue varieties.
I like the faint white patch just behind the stamens on the paler blue ones. The pink ones I’ve seen have that effect too.