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A family run business, since 1906, specialising in breeding and growing MICHAELMAS DAISIES (Autumn Flowering Asters).
Please explore our site to find out more about our special plants and how you can use them to bring colour to your garden in the late summer and autumn months.
Plant Heritage NCCPGEnjoy a tour of the well known Picton Garden where over 400 varieties of Michaelmas Daisies are growing in profusion with many other late season perennials and shrubs and also browse our new online catalogue to select your favourite varieties.
Get specialist advice related to growing Michaelmas Daisies from Paul, Meriel or Helen Picton (BSc Reading) and please free to contact us with any questions or requests.
HOME OF THE PLANT HERITAGE (NCCPG) NATIONAL COLLECTION OF AUTUMN FLOWERING ASTERS
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Old Court Nurseries
Welcome to Old Court nurseries the birthplace of the modern Asters hybridised by Ernest Ballard in the early years of the twentieth century. We have been specialist growers of these wonderful autumn flowers since 1906 and are continuing to expand the range available for purchase. We are a third generation family run business and offer a friendly personal service.
Plants are available by mail order each spring, please see the online catalogue for more details, or can be purchased from the nursery in Colwall. You can also request a printed copy of the brochure or a list of items via email by contacting us.
Old Court Nurseries were established by Ernest Ballard in 1906. Ballard was one of the first growers to specialise in breeding Asters and he devoted over 50 years to the development of his new race of garden flowers. The Herefordshire village of Colwall became the international home for the popular Michaelmas Daisy. Several fields glowed with colour each autumn when thousands of plants came into flower.
Such was the popularity of Asters during the first 60 years of the 20th century that many other English nurseries grew Michaelmas daisies and some raised new varieties, most of which were based on those raised by Ernest Ballard.
For decades Michaelmas Daisy borders were prominent features in large gardens and the plants were also popular as cut flowers. Autumn flower shows featured displays and those at London shows of the Royal Horticultural Society were always notable.
Percy Picton continued Ernest Ballard’s work after he came to manage Old Court Nurseries in 1947. Ernest Ballard died in 1952 and Percy bought the business from the Ballard family in 1956. His son, Paul, joined him in the 1960’s. Paul and his wife Meriel formed the NCCPG National Collection of Autumn Flowering Asters in the 1980’s. At the same time the Picton Garden was much expanded to display nearly 400 varieties of Asters. In 2009 a third generation of the Picton family joined the business. Having gained a first class degree in Botany at the University of Reading, Helen Picton, is looking forward to helping look after what is probably the largest selection of Michaelmas Daisies in the world.
What else is available?
Along side the autumn flowering asters there is a wide range of other autumn flowering perennials including Eupatorium atropurpreum, Helianthus ‘Lemon Queen’, Rudbeckia subtomentosa, Polygonum scoparium and Sanguisorba canadensis. Other specialities include Dactylorhiza foliosa and a range of the beautiful Japanese hybrids of the autumn flowering Saxifraga fortunei.
Over the last three years we have been rebuilding our collection of Alpines, many of which are now on display in the rejuvenated rockery in the car park, and the undercover rockery. Both these projects are still works in progress with much been done over the 2012 – 2013 winter.’
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Asters
These herbaceous perennials are better known in the UK as Michaelmas Daisies. Aptly so, because the peak season of flowering is September and October, with Micaelmas day falling on the 29th September. Hundreds of species and cultivated varieties are grown in gardens throughout the temperate regions of the world. Many more, in terms of plants growing are cultivated worldwide for the cut flower industry.
All are members of the Asteraceae family and specifically the Aster genus – at least as far as European botanists are concerned. Botanists in Northern America; where the worlds largest concentration of species are native, have intensively researched the naming of their continents species. Due to the discovery of significant genetic differences between North American species and those native to Europe and Asia, it was decided to allocate nearly all species in North America to the genera Symphyotrichum and Eurybia. Although this new classification has been adopted by the recently published Flora of North America and commercially in the USA, botanists and growers in Europe will continue to use the previous classification.
We owe the existence of nearly all our popular Michaelmas Daisy cultivars to species native to Northern America. A much lesser number are derived from species of European and Asiatic origins. Only the alpine, Aster sibiricus, is native to North America, Europe and Asia.
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Japanese Saxifrages
Saxafraga fortunei – Daimonjiso
Saxifraga fortunei is a species native to Japan, introduced by Robert Fortune in 1863.
Plants grow in mountain regions and favour shaded rocky crevices where abundant moisture is always present; but, is able to drain away freely.
he Japanese name of Daimonjiso relates the unique overall shape of the flowers to a Chinese written character used in Japanese writing called “Dai”, which means “Great”.the full name translates as “Great-Letter Plant”.
Daimonji Yama is a famous mountain in Japan, overlooking the city of Kyoto. It is an important site during the festival of O-Bon. On 16th August enormous fires in the shape of written characters are burned on the mountain. The largest being “Dai” meaning “Great”. This fire signifies the moment when deceased family members, who are visiting this world during the O-Bon festival, are returning to the spirit world.
Over the years Japanese plant breeders, led by Shimchi Kudo, have created a wonderful range of hybrids which are only now becoming available in Europe. Plants flower between late August and December, forming broad-leaved clumps growing around 10 cm to 30 cm tall according to the variety. Many sorts have attractive purple or bronze-red tints to their leaves, especially towards the autumn. Flowers are carried in abundance, often creating a soft, foamy effect, and come in white and shades of pink and light red.
Some of the hybrids close to the typical species make superb garden plants to bloom in September and October. Most of the more colourful hybrids which flower between late October and December will need to be kept in an unheated (Alpine) greenhouse from September onwards. The latter make beautiful windowsill plants etc. Pot grown plants do best standing out in a semi-shaded site from March to September. Grow them in good alpine plant compost, using additional leaf mould to reduce the pH. They will need plenty of water, which must be able to drain freely through the compost. They will not grow well in coir based or re-cycled waste composts.
Plant Availability
We propagate small numbers of these attractive plants. At certain times there are plants available for purchase from the nursery or by mail order. Please contact us for more information.
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01684 540 416
