Anemopsis - Aster

Anemopsis californica £3 / £3.75
A really different plant for the bog garden. Striking white bracts surround a tight inflorescence of little white flowers, making a big false flower. Rosettes of thick smooth leaves. From the American South West, and thriving in very hot conditions - we saw it looking splendid in a Tucson garden last Autumn - but seems hardy for us. Keep it wet!

Angelica maximovicii £3 / £3.50
Grown for its lovely narrowly lobed leaves, it's a low runner. Terribly interesting, but a dubious identification.

Aralia cachemirica £3 / £3.75
Ultimately a huge plant, approaching 2m in height, with wonderful divided foliage; creamy flowers followed by attractive black berries. Entirely herbaceous in Britain, and terribly refined.

Arisaema
The Cobra Lilies are dormant in winter, going up and flowering quickly once the tubers start growing. Everything about them is lovely, the spooky mottled emerging shoots, bold leaves and exotic aroid flowers. As a rule, plenty of warmth and moisture, a relatively well drained soil away from direct sunlight will suit them (most of these are from warm temperate Northern India and the Himalayas, and serious cold is not to their liking). Our heavy wet soil is not to the liking of every species, so we grow many very successfully as pot subjects. Once they die down, we let the compost dry off, then lift the tubers in early autumn, storing them in brown paper bags in a cool but frost-free room, potting up again from the end of February here. In autumn, we supply recently lifted tubers in autumn. Store as above, planting next spring.
All are propagated here in Devon.

Arisaema candidissimum £4 / £5
White/pink striped spathes. Trifoliate leaves. One of the best known and best as garden plants, even on clay. 40cm.

Arisaema ciliatum £3.50
Freely dividing, and very late into growth (June here) - hence late flowering.
Flowers when small, 25cm tall, but said to reach over 1m ultimately. A good bet in the open garden.

Arisaema consanguineum AGM £3 / £4
Tall, once it gets established, up to 1m.

Arisaema exappendiculatum £3 / £4
A few spares of this one, rather new to us.

Arisaema flavum £3 / £4
Short and pretty, flowering when young. Small spathes, green and yellow. Known as a good doer in the garden.

Arisaema ringens £5
Very distinctive flowers; the large green/white striped spathe is folded over at the top, almost closing the entrance. An excellent plant. 50cm.

Aristea inequalis £3.25 / £3.75
Still unflowered from seed but high hopes: fans of narrow grey irisy leaves should produce1.5m spikes of deep blue flowers. Sun, drainage; winter rainfall region of South Africa.

Aristea major pink form £3.50 / £4
Erect fans of tough, broad leaves. Dense heads of little pink flowers on stems lm+ in summer. For a mild, sunny position.

Artemisia lactiflora 'Jim Russell' £3.50 / £4
We think this more elegant than the well known Guizho group. The foliage isn't quite as dark, but the flowers are properly white, not a dirty off white, and the habit is rather more arching. Still a sound 1.5m clumper.

Arthropodium cirratum 'Matapouri Bay' £3.50 / £4.50
Big evergrey-green monocot. Tall branched panicles of nodding white flowers in
summer. Definitely for the frost free conservatory. FROM SPRING '08.

Arum italicum ssp. albispathum £3 / £3.75
Hearty, easy garden plant with dark green, silver veined leaves and white spathes.

Arum italicum 'Chameleon' £3 / £3.50
A gentle and comely plant, in leaf through the winter and spring. The large central part of each leaf is a misty blend of small areas of dark, pale and silvery grey greens. Easy in light shade.

Arum pictum £3.25 / £3.75
Grown for its silver-veined grey-green leaves in winter and spring, flowers autumn. Sun, good drainage.

Aruncus 'Johannifest' £3 / £4
Interesting German hybrid. Fuzzy spikes of white flowers age pinkish; leaves finely divided. 60cm.

Asarum caudatum £3 / £4
Sinister purple flowers among dark green leaves; usefully spreading habit. A toughie for shade.

Asarum maximum 'Silver Panda' £3.50
Big evergreen leaves marked in silver; black flowers with white centres in spring. Low clump for shade. Ideal in pot.
Asarum splendens £3.75
Larger leaves, marked silver. Flowers large enough to be noticeable without grovelling, with cream as well as brown in them. Splendid indeed. Moist-but-well-drained, and protect from slugs.

Aster 
'People won't buy asters' is one of the great truisms of the nursery trade, right up there with 'people like blue flowers' - you'll note the contradiction - but tough, we're going to waste a little space on four absolute favourites from our garden in autumn. If we still have to mention the m-word, let's just say that we've never seen mildew on any of these, although if you treated them horribly enough for long enough you might be able to prove a point…

Aster 'Fellowship' £3 / £4
A big shaggy double lilac-pink michaelmas daisy. Julian's Mum uses it as a very effective cut flower. 1.2m.

Aster 'Little Carlow' AGM £3 / £4
Heaps of medium sized really blue flowers in September, all over a bushy plant. Bred in Devizes. 'Creating large clumps of colour year in year out [it] is a first-class, 'no-fuss' hybrid' writes Paul Picton, who really should know. 1.2m.

Aster 'Ochtendgloren' AGM £3 / £4
Another floriferous hybrid, with slightly smaller pink flowers. Good bushy habit and strong constitution. 1.2m.

Aster 'Pixie Dark Eye' £3 / £4
Lots of medium sized rich purple, yellow eyed flowers on a compact (60cm for us) plant. Quite out of the ordinary.