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Aster x frikartii ‘Jungfrau’
Feb
Aster x frikartii ‘Jungfrau’, a hybrid between the European Aster amellus and the Himalayan Aster thomsonii, was raised by the Swiss plant breeder Carl Ludwig Frikart more than a century ago. It was one of three new cultivars Frikart raised from the cross, which he named for the three Swiss Mountains: ‘Mönch’, ‘Eiger’ and ‘Jungfrau’.
Of ‘Jungfrau’, G.S Thomas wrote in his book Perennial Garden Plants: “Without doubt this is one of the finest Asters for long display. The individual blooms are beautifully rayed, in clear lavender blue, …. Its colour is so gentle that it blends with any other colour; if placed next to flowers of similar colour it shames them by its cool quality. Aster x frikartii is not only the finest perennial aster; it is one of the six best plants, and should be in every garden. (Please do not ask for the names of the other five).”
(Highly awarded, Graham Thomas was the official garden adviser to the National Trust in England for twenty years from 1955, working in many of England’s finest gardens, including Hidcote Manor and Sissinghurst Castle.)
In the Lambley garden, Frikart’s Aster has made a bushy self-supporting plant some 50-60cm tall by 90cm across. It is as neat and tidy now as when it was planted four years ago. In flower from late January into April, it has the happy habit of producing new flowers above the spent ones so it always looks clean and needs no dead heading.
Unlike others in the genus, this Aster doesn’t suffer from mildew, nor does it run at the feet and become congested. In our garden it has proven to be rabbit-proof and our district, like most of Victoria, is overrun by rabbits.
The late Dennis Norgate kept this superb plant in cultivation in Australia for fifty years or more and it is from Norgate that Lambley got its original stock.
I first met Dennis nigh on sixty years ago. I remember it as though it was yesterday.