Centered by ebullient yellow stamens, a flurry of semidouble snow-white flowers prances above trim, compact rich green leaves. The layered, lucent petals plus peppy green foundation create a fresh classic style that earns Snow Angel a front row seat in formal borders, as well as pollinator plantings, cottage gardens and even cut arrangements. (pp#31,802)

Blooms August-mid October

Size: 18" – 2' 0" high x 18" – 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.

Reminiscent of triple curled parsley, the striking green leaves are embellished with curious curves, crinkles, ruffles and red-tinged margins. In autumn, 2 ft. tall stalks present delicate, 3 in. wide pale pink flowers, centered by shaggy yellow eyes, above an ultra-textured mound, which is more compact and less spreading than other hupehensis cultivars. Though there’s some confusion about its origins, this unusual British selection may be ‘Lady Gilmour’, an age-old cultivar first recorded in 1895.

Blooms mid-August–September

Size: 20" – 2' 0" high x 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.

Unlike many Anemones, ‘Alice’ spreads slowly, growing into a clump 3 ft. across within 3 years. It is robust and upright with large leaves that outsize the foliage of most hybrida forms. In our garden, the semidouble soft pink flow­ers appear to float against a hedge of Carpinus and contrast well with the yellow fall foliage of Amsonia hubrichtii.

Blooms late August–October

Size: 5' 0" – 6' 0" high x 3' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.

These beauties sway on tall but sturdy stems above lush deep green Maple-shaped leaves. Downy green buds open into semidouble white flowers with chartreuse eyes. In winter, seed heads turn a cozy chocolate-brown, making ‘Andrea Atkinson’ an entertaining addition to drifts or borders. For vivacious color, try it with Phlox ‘Blue Paradise’, Tricyrtis or blue-flowering Gera­niums.

Blooms August–late October

Size: 4-1/2' – 5' 0" high x 3' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

This lovely jewel-box-like hybrid affords cupped carmine-red blooms, festooned with spry yellow anthers above an attractive non-aggressive bed of low growing ferny green foliage. Parented by Anemone multifida and Anemone sylvestris, Anemone x lesseri’s fine cut palmately lobed leaves and uniquely colored up-facing flowers make compelling additions to the rockery, an open woodland planting or a border’s front lines. Appreciative of morning light accompanied by dappled afternoon shade on hot days, its dwarf habit requires minimal care, resists those meddlesome deer and prospers in moist well-drained organic-rich soil.

Blooms June

Size: 12" – 15" high x 9" – 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

This exquisite Chinese denizen presents refined single white flowers with a smoky halo of deep blue-violet stamens, which surround green centers, and mauve-flushed backsides. An illuminated choice for shady alcoves, Anemone leveillei’s low mound of deeply palmate and hirsute dark green leaves can be massed amid ferns and wild gingers in humus-enriched soil.

Blooms April–early June

Size: 15" – 18" high x 18" wide.

Hardy to zone 5.

This little-known endearing Anemone hosts uniquely etched, oval-shaped pale green buds and dainty, cupped, 1 in. wide soft yellow flowers followed by decorative, fluffy white seed heads on erect leafy stems. The appealing, somewhat reflective evergreen mound of lobed, fine-hewn deep green foliage is easily grown and well-suited for the front of a border with good drainage and moderate water.

Blooms July–October

Size: 12" high x 10" wide.

Zone 7/8.

A low-laying ferny mound of finespun green foliage and firm, somewhat fuzzy, upright stems lift the enchanting cupped white blooms. Selected from the North American native Anemone, ‘Annabella White’ keeps our interest sparked as abundant seed heads appear looking a bit like unripe strawberries, then later morph into a fluffy dove-gray mop. This compact undemanding perennial lends lovely accents to the rockery, a cottage garden, alpine planting or naturalized meadow, where it thwarts deer, looks most effective en masse and enjoys average well-drained soil with adequate moisture.

Blooms May–June

Size: 10" – 20" high x 10" – 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 3.

Adored by all who behold it, this charming European woodland plant boasts the choicest double Wood Anemone flowers in cultivation. Six ray petals, pure as the driven snow, encompass a fluffy white central tuft of distinctively gathered petaloid stamens. The elegant, long lasting 1 in. blooms repose upon low ferny mats of ephemeral spring leaves that show off a purplish sheen when young and disappear come summer.

Blooms late March–early May.

Size: 4" high x 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.

Brilliant citrine-yellow petals swirl around golden stamens, their sunny coloration rare for an Anemone. Often tinged red on the outside, the good-sized, saucer-shaped flowers are presented on slender, leafless 6 in. stems above a handsome basal mat of glossy deep green foliage. A southwest European native, this spreading Anemone prefers a sunny, well drained bank where its cheerful blooms can be paired with blue flowering Nepeta reichenbachiana.

Blooms May–June.

Size: 12" high x 8" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.

Native to the far reaches of Himalaya, India and Ceylon, this Anemone quickly emerges in the spring as an attractive basal clump of long-petioled deep green trilobed leaves. Red-tinged stems–silky, stiff, arching and branched–deliver snow white droves of large, open saucer-shaped flowers. Violet-blue anthers and backsides with dusty green and gun-metal blue streaks enhance the exquisite blooms, while spiky green seed heads gathered in ornamental clusters provide autumn allure. Unparalleled in drifts, ‘Glacier’ insists on cool, moist humus-rich soil.

Blooms June–August.

Size: 16" – 20" high x 12" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.

Hats off to the highly acclaimed Scottish Elizabeth MacGregor Nursery for this exceptional hybrida and rupicola cross. The tallest of the Swan series, ‘Ruffled Swan’ fashions large semidouble icy-white flowers dressed with ruffled margins, frilly golden centers and violet-blue undersides. The perfect-for-cutting sterile blooms look elegant all summer long above 3-lobed green leaves that produce a trim vigorous clump, favoring free-draining, evenly moist accommodations. (PPAF)

Blooms July–mid-October

Size: 2' 0" – 2-1/2' high x 18" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.

With Old World appeal, its sweet smelling bounty of yellow-eyed, satiny white blossoms has been lighting up gardens for over 400 years. Atop straight 18 in. stems, delicate cup-shaped single flowers offer a repeat bloom come fall, and later develop ornamental cotton-like seed heads. Deeply cut, palmate green leaves form a lustrous dense ground cover that easily naturalizes in loamy soil and bright shade. Amenable to full sun where its cool and full shade where it’s warm, this ethereal beauty detests desert heat, can accompany early-flowering spring bulbs and may periodically need its energetic rhizomes curbed.

Blooms April–June & September

Size: 12" – 18" high x 12" – 18" wide.

Hardy to zone 4.

Granted the prestigious plant of the year award at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2011, this wildly popular Anemone gives you good reason to swoon. Superb in bouquets, a long-lasting plethora of large snowy blooms with lavender-blue flip sides presents peerless panache atop slender stems and low growing, deeply divided dark green foliage. ‘Wild Swan’s well-mannered, noninvasive habit can be massed in a woodland garden or tucked amid rock work where its flowers close at dusk, resembling nodding bells. (pp#23,132)

Blooms June–September

Size: 18" high x 18" – 2' 0" wide.

Hardy to zone 6.