Description
(KurumayaShiro)
It is suggested that this actually a selection of pure A. amurensis but I am not sure if this is verified yet. Whatever its parentage or species, this is a delightful new selection with broad and perfectly overlapping, spoon-shaped petals which form a continuous disc of 14-17 petals, themselves forming a perfect backdrop for a circle of long filaments bearing golden-yellow anthers. These filaments do lengthen with floral maturity but remain yellow. The petals are a lovely soft, green-influenced, pale lemon-yellow and in the very centre of a green, conical boss shaped like a dumpy pineapple.
Gardening practice is to call all Japanese Adonis cultivars amurensis though it is more correctly “amurensis of Horticulture”. In the case of Kurumaya Shiro however it seems that the species name might actually be correctly attributed and justified.
All of the Japanese Adonis are all very early-flowering plants for a damp, humus-rich but well-drained, lightly-shaded spot. Adonis resent transplanting more than most other Ranunculaceae, a family notorious for their dislike of being moved. Please be patient with them (and with us) as this is down to evolution, not the nurseryman.
It seems that ‘Kurumaya’ in Japanese has several meanings; a wheelwright, a cartwright, a rickshaw-man, or a rickshaw station. ‘Shiro’ is easier, and it means ‘white’. alluding to the pale colouring of the flower.
Introduced to our lists September 2021
