Callistephus chinensis seed
LATIN NAME: Callistephus chinensis
COMMON NAME: China Aster
China aster is the full, showy, long-stemmed annual of the late summer, and it has been a mainstay of the cutting garden for a very long time. The plant carries a broad range of the flower forms, from the single daisies to the full, fluffy pompons, in the pinks, the purples, the blues, the whites and the reds. The flowers sit on long, straight stems above the fine, toothed leaves, and they last a long time in the vase. It is one of the great flowers of the autumn cutting bed.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The China aster has a long and well-documented history in the plant science. The many garden forms come from a long programme of the breeding and the selection that began with the single, wild daisy of the east, and the plant keeps showing up in the work on the annual flower breeding. The range of the flower forms and the colours, the disease resistance and the long vase life have all been worked on, and the results appear in the floriculture and the horticultural journals. The breeding story is one of the classic examples of the garden flower improvement, so the information here is reliable and well tested.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The China aster is a serious cut flower, and the long, strong stems and the long-lasting heads make it a mainstay of the autumn flower trade. In the garden it fills the beds and the borders with a broad range of the late colour, and the flowers pull in the bees and the butterflies of the season. The full, showy heads also make it a fine flower for the autumn arrangements and the seasonal displays. It has been written up in the horticultural and the floricultural papers for its variety and its long flowering, and it is a generous, dependable annual of the sunny border.
The China aster has been grown in the gardens of the east for centuries, and it was carried to the Europe in the early years of the eighteenth century, where the gardeners took it up with great enthusiasm. The breeding of the many forms and the colours has produced one of the richest ranges of any of the annual flowers, and the plant is a mainstay of the autumn cut-flower trade. The long, straight stems and the long-lasting heads have made it a favourite of the flower growers and the arrangers alike. It is a flower with a long, well-documented history in the gardens of the world.
To grow the China aster from seed, sow the fine, slender seeds thinly across the surface of pots of moist, free-draining soil and cover them very lightly, keep them in a bright, open, cool spot and water gently. The seedlings soon show themselves and grow on into strong young plants that prefer the sun and the good, well-drained soil. Set them out in a sunny, open bed, and they will flower through the late summer and the autumn. A row of it in the cutting garden will keep the vases full for a long stretch.
Callistephus Chinensis is a popular annual that provides showy, 3-5-inch diameter blooms from early summer to fall on plants clad with ovate, toothed, medium green leaves. The plant is easily grown in rich, consistently moist, well-drained soils in full sun to partial shade.
Callistephus Chinensis is a cool weather annual. Start seed indoors 6-8 weeks before last spring frost date. In the alternative, sow seed directly in the garden after last frost date. As a cut flower, the China Aster is highly popular and generally admired for its colors-rose-pink, white, and purple. The plant is used for beds, borders, cottage gardens, cutting gardens or pots/containers.The plant attracts butterflies and bees.