The leaves are turning. It might only be the second week of March but already, some plants have lost their lustre and are revealing the merest hint of the glorious tones to come. For those of us who live in a temperate climate, foliage is autumn’s main event, and rightly so. Nothing conveys summer’s last hurrah, and the inevitable descent into winter quite like the falling of leaves.
Look closer though, and less obvious glories reveal themselves. Rain lilies have popped up in the grounds of my daughter’s school. Salvia leucantha near the back gate is finally hitting its straps with an abundance of felty flower spikes. Lord Lambourne apples in the orchard are swelling, and will soon be ready to pick. And wherever I look there are daisies flowering their cheery little heads off in resistance to the shortening days.
Daisies belong to the Asteraceae family of plants. This is one of the largest and most geographically diverse families in the entire plant kingdom, with more than 23,000 individual species scattered across the globe, and absent only from Antarctica. All are identified by their star-shaped flowers (aster = “a star”), which is really a central cone of individual florets surrounded by coloured bracts. Lettuces, wormwood and artichokes are daisies. So are some of our worst weeds, like parthenium and boneseed. Australia has around 1,000 native daisy species, while South Africa and North America each have double this number, and are home to many of the more reliable daisies for the home garden.
Gerberas, gazanias, and osteospermums from South Africa, and echinacea, rudbeckia, and sunflowers from North America are all classic garden plants. Many flower late, giving them special associations with autumn. The Michaelmas daisy, Aster novi-belgii, flowers around the time of St Michael’s Day (29th September) in the northern hemisphere, but over here we call it the Easter daisy as it flowers around early April.
Both it and the closely related New England aster (A. novae-angliae) are both good doers in a perennial border, offering masses of flower until the first frosts. But as decent as these plants are, they’re not a shade on my favourite daisy, Aster x frikartii ‘Monch’. If I could recommend a single daisy ‘Monch’ would be it, and I’d actually rate it as one of the very best flowering perennials for Darling Downs gardens.
During the early 1900’s, a Swiss plant breeder named Frikart crossed the Italian starwort, A. amellus with A. thomsonii, a Himalayan species found on dry woodland edges. Neither species is that spectacular on its own, but through the magic of hybridisation the two combined to produce some interesting plants. Frikart named all his crosses after Swiss mountain peaks and one in particular – ‘Monch’ – stood out as a five star plant.
Monch’s virtues are many. Because of its parentage, it is very resistant to heat and drought. I’ve got it growing in a border that receives direct afternoon sun, and while other daisies wilt on hot afternoons, Monch seems unfazed. What makes it a great plant for our climate is that it combines drought tolerance with an ability to handle wet summer weather. During the last few weeks we’ve had rain almost every day in my garden, often the light misty stuff that is heaven for fungal diseases. Powdery mildew is one of the main afflictions of asters, but Monch is mildew free and happy as a lark.
These traits are all helpful and contribute to the plant’s garden worthiness. But let’s face it. Most gardeners treat flowering perennials like bimbo supermodels. All they’re really interested in are looks, and sometimes even the most superficial but dopiest plants find a place in the garden. I prefer plants (and people) with a more rounded “personality”. Hence the reason I’m such a fan of Monch. Sure, it produces masses of exquisite dusky purple flowers over a three month period well into May, but its traits go much deeper than mere good looks.
Growing Aster ‘Monch’ is a pretty straightforward affair. Give it well drained, half decent soil in a sunny spot, and plant toward the front of a border. The plant will reach about a metre in height, making it an excellent companion for autumn flowering roses, and other late flowering perennials like Salvia ‘Bethellii’ and Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’. One combination that works particularly well is when Monch is grown in front of big ornamental grasses like Miscanthus ‘Gracillimus’ – the late flowers contrasting subtly with the honeyed foliage tones produced by the grass as it fades.
Aster ‘Monch’ is available from specialist perennial nurseries and through mail order. Give it a try. Odds are, you’ll develop a new found love of an old garden favourite, the daisy.
First published in the Toowoomba Chronicle 9th March 2010. Photo by Justin Russell “Aster Monch”.
