Aster ericoides Golden Spray

Aster ericoides Golden Spray is a variety of heath aster that often blooms as early as the end of August. It then transforms into a dense ball of small, bright "daisies", white-pink with golden yellow centre. Its very fine foliage, gathered in a slightly fuzzy clumps, makes it look a bit like wild asparagus. It is an excellent perennial plant for wild or low-maintenance gardens, as well as for flower pots.

Aster ericoides belongs to the Asteraceae family and is native to the eastern and central United States. The cultivar 'Golden Spray' has received the Award of Garden Merit from the Royal Horticultural Society in England, akin to the gold medal of the plant world. The plant first develops small lanceolate basal leaves, then herbaceous stems with woody bases. They form a dense clump reaching 60 cm (24in) in height with a spread of 50 cm (20in). Like other Aster ericoides, it is distinguished by its initially erect stems, which then bend under the weight of the flowers. The foliage along the branches is very thin, dark green. It blooms in late summer, in August-September. The plant is covered with a multitude of small white-pink capitula with yellow, sometimes purple, hearts, measuring 1 cm (1in) in diameter.  

Aster Golden Spray blends very easily into a rural but also a more sophisticated setting, going well with both poppies and bellflowers, as well as with perpetual roses. Its delightful flowering coincides with the resurgence of creeping rosemary, the grey velvet of Stachys lanata 'Big Ears', Aster amellus and their cultivars 'Rudolf von Goethe' or 'King George'. All these plants are beautiful in early autumn and tolerate alkaline and rather dry soils. To add a touch of lavender pink colour, Aster linariifolius will be welcome in this border composition, as well as the evergreen germander with its lovely foliage. In an ordinary soil, not too dry, combine Golden Spray Aster with hardy chrysanthemums such as 'Emperor of China', known and cultivated in China for over two thousand years, or Chrysanthemum 'Dernier Soleil', and with Persicaria affinis 'Darjeeling Red'. Together these plants will create an incredibly beautiful scene. This Aster also performs very well in a pot.