admitted, and well deserves its place, namely, that fine white Daisy
_Pyrethrum uliginosum_, otherwise _Chrysanthemum serotinum_. There can
be no doubt that it is a daisy flower and that it blooms at Michaelmas;
facts that alone would give it a right to a place among the Michaelmas
Daisies. But it has all the more claim to its place among them in that
it is the handsomest of the large white Daisies, and, though there are
white kinds and varieties of the perennial Asters, not one of them can
approach it for size or pictorial effect. There is also the still taller
_Chrysanthemum leucanthemum_ or _Leucanthemum lacustre_, but this is a
plant that has an element of coarseness, and unless the spaces are
large, and the Asters are thrown up to an unusual size by a strong and
rich soil, it looks heavy and out of proportion.
Towards the front of the main portions of the Aster borders are rather
bold, but quite informal edgings of grey-leaved plants such as white
Pink, Stachys and Lavender-cotton; in places only a few inches wide, as
where the rich purple, gold-eyed _Aster Amellus_ comes to within a few
inches of the path, in the white Pink’s region, or again, where the
grey, bushy masses of Lavender-cotton run in a yard deep among the
Daisies.
About fifteen sorts are used in this double border; very early and very
late ones are excluded, so as to have a good display from the third week
of September for a month onward. They are mostly in rather large groups
of one kind together.
There is a more than usual pleasure in such a Daisy garden, kept apart
and by itself; because the time of its best beauty is just the time when
the rest of the garden is looking tired and overworn--evidently dying
for the year. Some trees are already becoming bare of leaves; the tall
sunflowers look bedraggled; Dahlias have been pinched by frost and
battered by autumn gales, and it is impossible to keep up any pretence
of well-being in the borders of other hardy flowers.
Then with the eye full of the warm colouring of dying vegetation and the
few remaining blooms of perennial Helianthus and half-hardy marigolds of
the fading borders, to pass through some screening evergreens to the
fresh, clean, lively colouring of the lilac, purple and white Daisies,
is like a sudden change from decrepit age to the brightness of youth,
from the gloom of late autumn to the joy of full springtide.
Another excellent way of growing the perennial Asters is among shrubs,
and preferably among Rhododendrons, whose rich green forms a fine
background for their tender grace, and whose stiff branches give them
the support they need.
[Illustration: THE ALCOVE, ARLEY