.png) Aster x frikarti 'Jungfrau' $7.95
- common name: aster
- flowering season: July through October
- height: 18 to 24 inches
- Light requirements: sun
- Soil requirements: average soil and well drained
- Water requirements: average
- Growth habit: a compact, bushy clump
- How to propagate: dividing in spring
- Leaf type: oval green leaves
- Ways to use it: a long lived plant in a sunny flower garden
- Special characteristics: has an extended blooming season from July into fall
One of the four original hybrids (A. amellus, from Europe x A. thomsonii, from Asia) of the Swiss hybridizer Carl Ludwig Frikart (1879 - 1964), the other three being Mönch, Wonder of Stafa and Eiger. This variety, 'Jungfrau,' is little known in gardens today. It is an excellent perennial differing from the others by being more compact and upright, with deeper colored flowers of lavender-blue. It blooms from July through October with a height of 18 to 24 inches, and a spread of 15 inches. USDA Zones 5 - 8, to Zone 9 in the West. It is not reliably winter hardy throughout USDA Zones 5 and 6, so leaving the spent flower stems on the plant over winter is a good idea as well as putting a light winter mulch over the crown of the plant. In early spring the old growth can be cut away. To explain its name, quoting from Wikipedia, “the Jungfrau (German: “maiden/virgin”) is the third highest of the Bernese Alps, ... between Valais and Bern in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and Mönch, the Jungfrau forms a massive wall overlooking the Bernese Oberland and considered one of the most emblematic sights of the Swiss Alps.” |
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