Brilliant blue daisies
When autumn arrives, some parts of the garden here will be full of blue daisies. For the most part they’ll be Michaelmas daisies. We use aster (or nowadays symphyotrichum) ‘Little Carlow’ extensively, but it’ll be some time before we see its clouds of blue daisies. Meanwhile, there are two outstanding blue daisies providing a counterpoint to the wealth of yellow daisies currently brightening up the garden. Sometimes, especially on a bright day, that yellow can be quite overpowering. Rudbeckia, both the annuals and the perennial Rudbeckia fulgida deamii, have brilliant yellow flowers. The perfect blue daisies of Aster frikartii ‘Mönch’ have just started to bloom. Each plant, each stem, each flower has perfect deportment and flowers are borne through until the frosts. The centre, composed of disc florets, as in all daisies, is almost green at first, becoming yellow as pollen ripens. Its daisies are dainty, whereas in Stokesia laevis they’re large and very visible. A plant from Carolina and Georgia, it deserves to be much more widely grown than it is with its broad, shaggy daisies in brightest blue with overlapping petals touched with white. Both plants provide a peaceful note against the sea of yellow and both are easy to grow, only demanding good soil and plenty of sun.