Gardeners have had a long time to get it right with Michaelmas daisies. In fact we have had 300 years yet we still complain about our Michaelmas daisies; too tall, floppy, mildew … Gerard’s Catalogue and Herbal of 1596-7 is the given date for the introduction of Aster amellus or Italian aster to Britain (p537 Hadfield’s 1936 Gardener’s Companion) and in “1710 Aster novi-belgii and A. novae-angliae ,parents of the modern Michaelmas daisy, (arrived) from N. America” (pp537-539 Hadfield 1936).
This explains the mid-nineteenth century description of Michaelmas daisies in The Flower Garden by E.S. Delamer “ – Great, straggling, gawky things, which would be discarded, but that they put forth flowers, in considerable variety of white, pink, purple, and blue, when almost everything else is in the sear and yellow leaf, and therefore are acceptable to help fill up bouquets.” Our friend, Eugene Sebastien Delamer, clearly doesn’t want them in his backyard.
Bought from Free Spirit Nursery, I have it planted in partial shade (facing north west) with the mauve Verbena bonariensis and next to my neighbour’s cedar trimmed into a ball. It is mildew resistant and beloved by bees and butterflies.
The Telegraph article mentioned earlier lists 6 of the best, another of which is my personal favourite Aster amellus ‘Veilchenkönigin’ which translates as Violet Queen. I first fell in love with the Violet Queen after seeing it in Christopher Lloyd’s book The Year at Great Dixter (1987), where he pairs this stocky short Italian aster with lipstick pink Nerine x bowdenii. The vibrant violet-blue colour and short stems of this aster make it ideal for overcast North Vancouver days and wetter weather, and as an added bonus, bees love the single flat blooms.
“It is a cross between Aster amellus (Italian aster or starwort) and A. thomsonii, this is an upright perennial with an ability to thrive in dry areas. A. thomsonii is a Himalayan species found on dry woodland edges. ‘Mönch’ was one of several deliberate crosses made by a Swiss nurseryman called (Carl Ludwig) Frikart around 1918 when he was just 29. He named all his crosses after Swiss mountain peaks. ‘Mönch’ is one of the best, and ‘Wunder von Stafa’ bred in 1924, is similar but with bluer flowers.” http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardens/Harlow-Carr/About-Harlow-Carr/Plant-of-the-month/October/Aster-x-frikartii-Mönch There is also another of his crosses called the ‘Eiger’. I would recommend gently staking the monk and lifting and dividing it every three years.
There is another lovely slightly darker violet blue Aster amellus called King George which is shorter and less floppy than Monch.