Aster la vista: flower of the month
Is your garden or outside space in need of some colourful autumn blooms? The HTA suggests planting Asters, as they flower pretty much up to Christmas.
Asters come in various colours with pink and purple being the ones most visible in our gardens.. Asters are popular with our darling bee friends, and they flower well into autumn.
If your plants have stopped flowering and your flower beds or containers are looking a bit too green, get hold of some Asters, which will inject a burst of colour with their daisy like flowers.
A favourite herbaceous border plant to provide continued colour through to the first frosts, Aster mixes well with other late flowering plants and is popular with bees.
Aster is one of the HTA's top 10 herbaceous border plants that can be planted during the autumn months.
The name Aster comes from the Latin word for 'star' and describes the shape of the flower head. They're also known as Michaelmas daisies (ah, bet that rings a bell..) and there are several species and cultivars of different colours and heights.
Aster x fikartii 'Monch' is traditionally lavender blue and other popular varieties include Aster Bahamas, Barbados, Ibiza, Samoa, and Tonga which come in rich purples and pink.
All varieties make for good cut flowers and are easy plants for novice gardeners to achieve success with - blooms being the measure of success.
