Day 275: Michaelmas daisy

Daily details from the garden to bring you inspiration throughout the year

Symphyotrichum turbinellum, and a dirty great steel fencing pin to tie the top-heavy flowering stems to. A Chelsea chop works well on these asters at the end of May, reducing height but making the plant more stable.

Symphyotrichum turbinellum, and a dirty great steel fencing pin to tie the top-heavy flowering stems to. A Chelsea chop works well on these asters at the end of May, reducing height but making the plant more stable.

Michaelmas was on Sunday, and weeks of waiting are over. The asters I was impatiently anticipating back in August (Day 224 Waiting for Asters) are bursting into bloom.  These ebullient flowers have an odd hold on me – typically, plants with small leaves and small flowers can appear fussy en masse, giving a border a noisy, over-complicated air. But clouds of asters only ever fill me with joy, in spite of the diminutive upper leaves and tiny flower buds – I can stand back and admire the grand effect, or step up close and marvel at the intricate details. I wonder if it’s simply that the daisy is one of the first flowers any of us ever draws, and so occupies a special place in both our visual and emotional memory, taking us ever back to simpler, less complicated times.


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Hello! I’m Andrew, gardener, blogger, podcaster, and owner of a too-loud laugh, and I’m so pleased you’ve found your way to Gardens, weeds & words. You can read a more in-depth profile of me on the About page, or by clicking the image above.

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