Anemone blanda comes from the rocky hillsides and open woodlands of southeastern Europe and the Middle East, where it grows beneath deciduous trees in thin, well-drained soil. The specific epithet blanda means mild, pleasing, or charming, and it is a fair description. The flowers open in April and May in a vivid purple-blue that reads almost electric in the still-bare landscape of early spring, though pink and white forms are also available. Each plant grows only 6 inches high and wide, but planted in drifts beneath deciduous shrubs or trees they naturalize readily, spreading by division of the tubers to form increasingly generous colonies.

The plant dies down by early summer, which makes it a natural companion for later-emerging perennials that will fill the gap it leaves behind. Plant the tubers in autumn, soaking them for a few hours first if they appear very dry, at 2 to 4 inches apart in partially shady areas. The ideal setting is precisely what a deciduous tree provides: sun and rain in autumn and spring, shade and relative dryness in summer. In those conditions, Grecian windflower asks almost nothing and delivers four weeks of genuine early-season spectacle. Rock gardens, border fronts, and woodland paths are its natural destinations.