0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.
0:00:20 > 0:00:24Now let's look at the biggest flower family in the world.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27'Because D is for the daisy family,
0:00:27 > 0:00:29'also known as asteraceae.
0:00:29 > 0:00:33'And here's a botanical lesson with Carol Klein.'
0:00:36 > 0:00:40Ahh. This is beautiful!
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Every so often, I get the opportunity
0:00:42 > 0:00:46to actually sit in my garden and enjoy it.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50I mean, what else are gardens for, when it comes to it?
0:00:50 > 0:00:55But perhaps this isn't the place I would've chosen during the month of August.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58There was nothing really exciting going on.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00But now just look at it.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03This gorgeous Rubeckia.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05It's Rubeckia fulgida deamii.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Daisies are such beautiful flowers, such a gorgeous construction.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19They almost look like the kind of flower that a child would draw,
0:01:19 > 0:01:24with this centre and then these beautiful petals around the edge.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27The petals actually are called ray florets
0:01:27 > 0:01:31and the whole purpose of them is to draw insects from far and wide
0:01:31 > 0:01:35to come and feast in the centre and pollinate the flowers.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37And the flowers are right in the middle,
0:01:37 > 0:01:41but there is not just one, there's a whole collection of them.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43There's lots and lots of little ones.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48And the daisies themselves make these gorgeous flat platforms
0:01:48 > 0:01:53so that insects can land and feast to their hearts' content.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57Rubeckia fulgida deamii needs decent soil.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59It needs a good living.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02So if you're really on the dry side, don't try and grow it.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07But there are a host of other Rubeckias, too, which you could try.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10One of them is the annual, Rubeckia hirta,
0:02:10 > 0:02:14and I've got a load of one called Rustic Dwarves,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16which was one of my mum's favourite flowers,
0:02:16 > 0:02:21and they are so rewarding! They just give you colour and colour and colour.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23They're wonderful cut flowers, too.
0:02:26 > 0:02:32All the Rubeckias and many of the other daisies that we use in the late Autumn garden
0:02:32 > 0:02:34are from the prairies of North America.
0:02:34 > 0:02:38But this scintillating blue aster
0:02:38 > 0:02:41is Aster frikartii Monch
0:02:41 > 0:02:43and it doesn't come from the States at all.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47It's a cross between a European and an Asiatic species.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50It flowers almost endlessly from July onwards
0:02:50 > 0:02:55and, as you can see, it's a pretty good companion to these Rubeckia.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04I no longer grow aster novi-belgii,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07the most popular Michaelmas daisy,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10cos I got fed up of people wandering down the paths and saying,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14"What's that plant with the interesting white foliage?"
0:03:14 > 0:03:19It was actually powdery mildew and it completely disfigured the plants.
0:03:19 > 0:03:24The reason for powdery mildew is that these plants are very, very inbred
0:03:24 > 0:03:27and the further a plant gets from its species
0:03:27 > 0:03:30then the more likely it is to get disease.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34And powdery mildew is caused usually in very dry conditions.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36So I'm afraid I abandoned them.
0:03:36 > 0:03:41Well, I'm not afraid, actually, because the asters that I've adopted in their stead
0:03:41 > 0:03:44are so much worthy of a place in the garden.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd