Color in Autumn Garden Landscapes
Michaelmas Daisies Play a Large Role in Autumn Landscape Designs
Sep 30, 2006
Michaelmas Daisies Aster novi-belgii, the New York asters and their close cousins New England asters Aster novae-anglicae, herald autumn in garden landscapes with bursts of color.
These plants began horticultural life as ditch weeds and pasture plants in the northeast U.S. but now make spectacular foundations for late autumn plantings in both the U.S. and Europe. Their popularity began in the early 20th century with breeding and selection programs by German and British horticulturalists. As these asters progressed through their European horticultural finishing school their saga, according to Allen Armitage in Herbaceous Perennial Plants: A Treatise on Their Identification, Culture, and Garden Attributes, began to read like a veritable who's-who of contemporary horticulture.
Prominence in English gardens produced, especially for New York astersthe nickname of Michaelmas daisies .The New York aster is sometimes characterized as the true Michaelmas daisy. However, many horticulturalists lean toward accepting almost any late-blooming aster as a Michaelmas daisy. This may include the New York asters' relatives the New England asters and Frikart's aster , Aster –X frikartii, a hybrid that is another result of the early 20th century horticultural finishing school.
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), a gifted artist who began to design and write about gardens because of her failing eyesight, became one of the most important influences on 20th century English gardening. Jekyll's late autumn Michaelmas Daisy border at her Munstead Wood (Surrey) garden started the vogue for one-color gardens or those devoted to a narrow part of the color spectrum. In this instance, the border and color scheme are even more restricted to one group of plants and one season!
Artist George Samuel Elgood (1851-1943), Jekyll's friend, skillfully rendered this Michaelmas border inthe book Some EnglishGardens, published in 1904. This was his greatest book in which he portrayed with watercolors thirty-six gardens attached to great houses or castles in Britain. Gertrude Jekyll supplied the commentary on each garden.
Studying this painting (which is owned and copyrighted by the Jekyll estate), it is easy to see the various heights and colors of Michaelmas daisies available to keen gardeners as early as the beginning of the 20th century.
Here at the beginning of the 21st century, gardeners have even more of a selection of Michaelmas daisies from which to choose, and an abundance of design ideas other than the traditional perennial border,with which to work.
Please read Michaelmas Daisies Mean Autumn, one of my recent blogs,to learn about the derivation of this unusual common name for Aster novi-belgii.
In my next article, I will explore some present-day ideas for using these cool aster colors and their myriad of sizes in landscape design. I will also present some modern cultivars and a little of their history.
Kate Copsey, in her recent American Gardens article Colorful Fall Perennials, presents ideas about more fall perennials.
Here are five books which are helpful to have close at hand while incorporating perennials into landscape designs:
- Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, 2003. Timber Press, ISBN-13:9780881925593; ISBN-10:0881925594;
- The Well- Tended Perennial Garden: Planting & Pruning Techniques (Expanded Edition) by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, 2006, Timber Press, ISBN-13:9780881928037; ISBN-10:0881928038.
- Armitage's Garden Perennials: A Color Encyclopedia by Allan M. Armitage, 2000, Timber Press, ISBN-13:9780881924350 ; ISBN-10:0881924350;
- Herbaceous Perennial Plants: A Treatise on Their Identification, Culture, and Garden Attributes by Allen M. Armitage in 2nd edition (April 1997), Stipes Publishing, LLC, ISBN: 087563723X; and
- Native Plants for North American Gardens by Allan M. Armitage, 2006, Timber Press, ISBN: 0881927600.
©
Text and photograph by Georgene A. Bramlage, September 2006. Reproduction without permission prohibited.
