MUST HAVE plants
These hardy perennials offer huge variety and an enchanting display, just when it’s needed
Autumn sees tired summer borders galvanised with a wonderfully fresh injection of vibrant colour from the garden’s last big hurrah of the year, when brilliant blooms join forces with turning foliage and jewel-like fruits, all enhanced by the gorgeous clarity of the autumn light. Michaelmas daisies are among the most spectacular of the season’s performers, renowned for their vivid colours as well as softer shades. Thriving in good soil and sun, these easy, hardy, and long-lived herbaceous perennials offer exceptional variety with hundreds of cultivated varieties and some enchanting species.
Pre-2015, all Michaelmas daisies belonged to the genus aster, but scientific study revealed some great differences and resulted in major name changes. So, while Eurasian species remain classified as asters, North American species now have their own genera, symphyotrichum, which encompasses New England asters (S. nova-angliae), New York asters (S. nova-belgii), and small-flowered species from the same continent, including S. ericoides and S. laterifolium. Several other species now belong to the genera eurybia, galatella and oreostemma. Knowing which plants belong where does help choose the right ones for a particular site or style, but don’t stress overmuch at the names: expert Helen Picton confirms it’s safe to collectively refer to them as Michaelmas daisies.
With sizes ranging from knee-high mounds to 2m giants, and flowers in sizes and shapes from dainty little singles to big chunky doubles, these daisies match a wealth of different planting sites and styles. Colours range from vivid purples and glowing pinks to mauves, softer pastel shades, and whites. While peak flowering time is September and October, with such a huge genus it’s unsurprising that some buck the trend and flower at other times, with a few blooming from as early as June and others as late as November.
Looks aside, these plants are magnificent biodiversity-boosters, too. The blooms are ideal for butterflies, bees and other pollinators, but Michaelmas daisies just keep on giving for wildlife if not swept away in an autumn tidy-up.
Hibernating insects love to shelter in the dry stems and crinkled leaves, in turn drawing foraging birds in search of winter food. For us there is the ephemeral beauty of the dead standing stems, strung with misty webs in autumn or silvered with winter frost.
