The confusing world of anemones
This week it’s:
I SUSPECT that most people say it wrong! The word is anemone: ‘ah-nemo-ne’e. But hands up those of you who talk about ‘ah-ne-no-mee’! Huge swathes of the population, it seems, find it easier to enunciate ‘nuh-nuh-muh’ rather than ‘nuh-muh-nuh’. Regardless of this, the flower itself has considerable diversity, a fascinating history, and offers huge value in any garden. Let’s take a sideways glance at the wonderful genus!
The common name for the anemone is ‘windflower’, which applies to all 120 or so species – and even some closely related genera, including anemonoides, anemonastrum, pulsatilla and hepatica (which some botanists reckon should all be classed as anemones anyway).
Windflower wind-up
THIS year in Britain we’ve had one or two really strong is the Greek word for wind; the were the four directional winds in Greek mythology. So why were the flowers called anemones? The answer is steeped in mythological beliefs, and any (or none) of these may be correct:
