COLOUR EXPLOSIONS BEFORE WINTER’S WHITE

Aster’s vibrancy and their flowering longevity create cloudbursts of colour lasting well into November. Clever plant choices can spark an autumn colour bonanza and the highlight of the gardening year.

Tainted image

Autumn aster’s have had a tough time. Since their pop-ularity peaked, a century ago, their use has slumped. Back then every respectable border boasted blocks of autumn asters, that in turn had teams of gardeners battling against the plant’s tendency to flop and turn ugly with mildew. Asters earned a reputation of being “too difficult” and lots of work. More recently they were con-fused with chrysanthemums and stigmatised as “the ce-metery flower”. Manipulated with chemicals to stunt growth and forced to flower on cue with light-then-dark-ness treatment, autumn asters are thought by many as colour daubs for graves in autumn.

Hard earned success

Impressed by the colour power of autumn asters, profes-sional gardeners in England, Germany and Switzerland have been working quietly in the background for decades hybridising new and better cultivars. Particularly in the last forty years many disease resistant asters have been introduced. The strength of this genus has so improved that there are now asters flowering profusely in July. They then pass on the “bloom baton” to others main-taining an aster floral performance until November. 2002, these hardy perennials were chosen as Europe’s “Peren-nial of the Year”. Autumn asters are blessed with the a-bility to orchestrate a spectacular finale, when all other plants are pulling in their horns.

Disadvantages in advantages

Ironically for asters their end-of-year flowering advantage is a disadvantage. When gardening lovers visit nurseries in spring, asters are barely in leaf. By July when the gar-dening world goes on holiday, most autumn asters are scarely in bud, and when they come into their own in September and October, the gardening public is dis-tracted with winding down the garden ready for winter. Professional nurseries know that plants must be in flower to sell. The brilliant colour spectrum of autumn asters and their variety of petal and flower form are lost on most potential buyers. Without seeing asters in colour, few will buy.

Chromatic star

Aster novi-belgii is the indisputable colour star. This tall-growing autumn American native has the broadest colour palette of all aster varieties. A. novi-belgii is a boon for blue swooners offering an unparalleled range of azure hu-es. Those preferring pink will find amongst the novi-belgii asters (together with its American-native relation Aster novae-angliae) a range of pale ‘ballet’ to brash ‘shocking’ pink, with varieties of heavenly purples and reds, lilac and purple.

But where to start?

Experts are emphatic about keeping choices simple. Se-lect a colour direction, blue or pink and start and try just three varieties, each with a staggered flowering time. The golden rule is to plant lots of each one. The dramatic mass flowering effect, special to this genus is achieved only by numbers. Too often Asters are treated like soli-taire plants with predictable disappointment. Single stemmed specimens find few supporters.

Fanned club

Great fans of autumn asters are insects and butterflies. The Aster amellus European indigenous variety (named after “Mella” a subsidiary of the Italian River Po) and the small compact Aster dumosus are, for some species of insects, the only source of nectar in difficult pre-winter months. One of aster’s hybridising fathers of last cen-tury, Karl Foerster poetically remarked, “ without asters the subtle tones of autumn’s song are lost. Asters em-body the spirit of autumn”. Autumn asters alone bring the last explosions of vibrant life before winter’s blanket spreads, closing the gardening year.

Intralink:

The Supernovae - Autumn’s heavenly bodies, the Asters novae-angliae

Weblinks:

www.staude.at - Stauden Feldweber

www.praskac.at - Praskac Pflanzenland

www.autumnasters.co.uk - Paul Picton, English National Collection of Asters