Trends come and go and sometimes the very same trend comes back again to say hello. This is true of clothing, music, food and interior design. To a certain extent, gardening also has its trends albeit slow changing ones.
Think back to the funky macrame hanging pots filled with spider plants of yesteryears and the much-loved African violets scattered here and there around homes. Fast forward to today and now people are loving large-leaved plants such as the trendy fiddle-leaf fig and, of course, terrariums are everywhere.
With Easter upon us, let’s take a closer look at a plant that has made a fashion comeback of late and is blooming in all its glory around this festive time of year. Easter daisies aka Michaelmas daisies aka Aster novi-belgii originated in North America, made their way to Europe in the 18th Century and eventually journeyed here. These herbaceous perennials with magnitudes of dainty little daisies were named after Easter due to the fact that their most beautiful arrays of flowers make an appearance during the Southern Hemisphere’s autumnal period.
They are hardy, much loved by bees, can flower from three to four months, and come in dainty colours such as mauve, pink , purple and white through to pale lilac blue.
Give them a good hard pruning once they have finished their flowering show, give them a good dose of fertiliser in spring and they will thank you with a beautiful new ocean of flowers next season. Floriography, the language of flowers, has denoted the aster as a flower symbolising love or daintiness. We agree on both counts.
So bring on the hot cross buns, the Easter bunny, chocolate Easter eggs and, why not, the Easter daisies.