home & Garden

Look locally over the garden gate with Lucie Giselle Ponsford

‘Tis the season, well mid way through Michaelmas season which is September - December and this month’s plant in focus is the Michaelmas daisy.

The star of our late season perennials, its blooms of pink, purple, white and blue are perfectly paired with autumnal leaf colours, of oranges, reds, yellows and browns.

Asters are named after astéri the Greek word for star due to the astral-like composite (daisy) flowers that float on strong stems in otherwise quiet and browning borders. I love these plants, they are great for pollinators getting in the last of the nectar stores and of course extend the interest in the garden way beyond late summer. In fact, they are triggered into flowering precisely by the reduced sunlight of autumn days, an adaptation no doubt to take advantage of the reduced competition as other flowering plants become dormant.

They will hold after a frost too unlike the Mexican Sunflowers (Dahlia) who, from hotter climes will rupture with the destructive force of liquid to solid in their turgid water packed stems.

I highly recommend a garden centre visit to see the diversity in size, stature and colour and once you have them they are an interesting plant to propagate, easy when you know how! - you can of divide after about 5 years as with most perennials but they will grow decent plants from inch long root cuttings taken in spring, which is a little bit of an extra chore of the season but well worth lifting the perennials and seeing the new, white fleshy growths full of juvenile vigor and ready to plant out by the end of that year.

Let their stems and seed heads stand with grasses and other strong stemmed perennials like Verbena bonariensis and Echinacea and they will provide frost-covered beauty through winter too. Truly a heavenly herald to starry nights and cosy jumper days in the garden.

For more garden tips and information visit my Facebook page @mimosagardendesign and our community group @ilovemynewgarden. With love, Lucie

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