Known as Stokes' aster, Stokesia are colourful giant cornflowers, producing colour over a long summer season – certainly from June to September – but you can prolong this as well with regular deadheading. There is just one perennial species – Stokesia laevis – which hails originally from North Americ. However, there are a number of excellent cultivars that delight modern gardeners with flowers in a variety of colours. If you search for them, there are cultivars with flowers in many shades of blue, as well as white, pink and purple.

Each Stokesia plant forms a basal rosette of strap-shaped leaves (which stay green over winter, and help to protect the fleshy roots). In summer, the large, finely-divided, daisy-like flowerheads are often 10cm across. Bold, but not garish, stokes' asters make great front-of-border plants – and are also good for cutting and bringing indoors for vase decoration. It is best if Stokesia plants are given sun and shelter, as well as a soil that is free-draining (particularly important over the winter period). In colder areas, it is a good idea to provide a thick organic mulch over the root areas, before winter sets in.