I love the big, bumptious, fast-spreading asters in my garden.\u00a0 There is \u2018Alma Potschke\u2019, often written about and even more often spotted in every single one of my garden beds. \u00a0\u00a0I know she is officially an \u201cit\u201d, but calling her \u201cshe\u201d seems more logical. \u00a0\u2018Alma\u2019 self-seeds as if she thinks extinction is just around the corner.\u00a0 Despite that, who could not love her?\u00a0 She is tall\u2014growing over five feet high when deer don\u2019t shorten the stalks\u2014and flowers in shades ranging from medium pink to dark magenta.\u00a0 The many individual blooms open over a long period, so \u2018Alma\u2019 can shine forth for a couple of weeks before giving up the ghost for the year<\/p>\n
Only slightly less vigorous than \u2018Alma\u2019 is Aster frikartii \u2018Monch\u2019, which is smaller, bearing three-foot tall mounds of small, bright blue flowers with golden centers.\u00a0 \u2018Monch\u2019 actually features arching stems, which create the attractive mounds.\u00a0 Like \u2018Alma\u2019, it has expansionist tendencies, though the expansion generally comes from the outgrowth of the original clump rather than be rampant self-seeding.\u00a0 I divided my \u2018Monch\u2019 last year because it had completely outgrown its allotted space in the front garden.\u00a0 This year, the new back garden specimen is showing signs of growing as quickly as its parent.\u00a0 In a few more years, I will have clumps of \u2018Monch\u2019 in between the many stands of \u2018Alma\u2019.<\/p>\n
This year, though my affection for the big asters is undiminished, I find myself drawn to their smaller wild cousins.\u00a0 These are the asters whose species names are a secret shared only with their botanist friends\u2014and even those friends sometimes find themselves stumped.\u00a0 All over the yard, the asters peek out from under the hedges, brave the inhospitable zone behind the garage and stand defiantly in front of the overgrown holly trees.\u00a0 Usually they grow only twelve to eighteen inches tall, with a plethora of tiny flowers in either white or pale blue.\u00a0 Valor is a given.\u00a0 In so many places, including my yard, they must compete with the seasonal wave of boneset–Eupatorium perfoliatum–an aggressive spreader that sports fluffy-looking flowerheads composed of scores of tiny white blooms.\u00a0 I yank out most of the bonesets when I see them; I never yank out a wild aster.<\/p>\n
In the shady part of the garden, a few plants of the white wood aster\u2014Aster divaricatus\u2014sprout in small numbers.\u00a0 Its flowers are spindly and sparse looking, befitting their status as a semi-shade plants.\u00a0 Sunnier spots see species like the slightly more robust-looking small white aster\u2014Aster vimineous.\u00a0 My favorites are the exquisitely small flowers of a species with pale blue blossoms.\u00a0 I am not sure of its name, but it could well be a naturally occurring hybrid \u201cplanted\u201d by a bird who ate seed in a neighbor\u2019s yard or a nearby untended area.\u00a0 I love them all in bouquets, but am careful not to pick too many, for fear of preventing self-seeding.\u00a0 If only they could take a lesson from \u2018Alma Potschke\u2019.<\/p>\n
The little wild asters have been rechristened in the last twenty years or so, along with some of their cultivated brethren.\u00a0 Plant taxonomists, having given scientific consideration to the origins of various asters, decided that the American natives should be separated from their non-native kin.\u00a0 That resulted in the non-natives remaining in the Aster genus and many of the Americans reassigned to the genus Symphyotrichum, an ungainly name for a lovely group of plants.\u00a0 Needless to say most people still call the whole crew \u201casters\u201d.<\/p>\n
Of course, there are some large wild asters as well, and they are much in evidence in the northeast where I live.\u00a0 The New England aster, formerly known as Aster novae-angliae, is three or four feet tall, with branching stems full of dramatic blue-purple flowers.\u00a0 It is a parent of many of the fashionable cultivated varieties, including \u2018Alma Potschke\u2019.<\/p>\n
The New York aster\u2014Aster novae-belgii\u2014is also relatively large and large-flowered, but generally favors moist or marshy places.\u00a0 It too has been widely hybridized.\u00a0 Students of Latin will note that the species name means \u201cnew Belgium\u201d, not \u201cNew York\u201d.\u00a0 This is because settlers from Europe\u2019s low countries got here ahead of those from England.\u00a0 The flowers that were here to greet them were named accordingly.<\/p>\n
This year I let the large asters hold sway in the garden and pick the little wild ones for the house.\u00a0 Though beautiful, they are not showy; though stalwart, they don\u2019t put on airs.\u00a0 Their quietness mirrors my own feelings as the hours of daylight wane.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love the big, bumptious, fast-spreading asters in my garden.\u00a0 There is \u2018Alma Potschke\u2019, often written about and even more often spotted in every single one of my garden beds. \u00a0\u00a0I know she is officially an \u201cit\u201d, but calling her \u201cshe\u201d seems more logical. \u00a0\u2018Alma\u2019 self-seeds as if she thinks extinction is just around the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[265,264,634,448,1507,1508,1506,147],"class_list":["post-1976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-alma-potschke","tag-asters","tag-fall-flowers","tag-native-plants","tag-new-england-asters","tag-new-york-asters","tag-wild-asters","tag-wildflowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1977,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}