Aster Giants of California

Heads up to 12cm across, fully double and feathered like an ostrich plume, in deep purple, hot pink and clear violet on stems of 70 to 80cm. Where a standard peony-flowered aster gives you six to eight centimetres, this gives you double that.

It was bred in the flower fields around Santa Maria in California for the commercial cut trade, and everything about it reflects that: stronger stems, longer vase life and bigger flowers than a garden strain. Two weeks in a cool room is normal. It carries the Fleuroselect Quality Mark for garden performance and uniformity.

The size is also the catch. A head that big on a stem that tall is top-heavy, and one wet windy night in September will have them on the ground unless they are netted or staked. Give them an open sunny spot with room around them. Like all the China asters they are half-hardy annuals sown fresh each year, and they are susceptible to aster wilt, so keep them moving round the plot rather than growing them in the same ground season after season. Flowering runs August to October.