Tag: Calico Aster
CALICO ASTER, YOU WIN
Years ago, I gave a friend some Calico Aster (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum) volunteers, along with a number of other natives. A few months later she confessed to me that she had pulled it out of her garden because it looked too weedy. Not too long after that, I came to the conclusion that she was right. …
A Galaxy of Asters
Aster means “star”, which seems appropriate. They look like the heavenly stars that we see from an earthbound perspective. And so they are at their best when blooming in great masses, a Milky Way of asters.
Asters Famous and Obscure
I love asters. I love their clouds of little flowers, the way they positively hum with bees, the fresh color that they add to cool autumn days. In my garden there are a number of aster species, some commonly found in gardens, others more easily found in the wild. I want to write about three …
As Ye Self-Sow, So Shall Ye Reap
As winter closes in, I find myself turning more and more to that emotional survival trick of gardeners everywhere: obsessing over what I’m going to plant next spring. As I peruse my books and catalogs, I keep running into an ominous phrase: “self-sows freely”. Experienced gardeners know what this means. It means that you are …
An Astonishing Variety of (Mostly) Wild Asters
Now that I have the taxonomy issue out of my system (see last post), I can write about the asters in my garden. (As hillwards points out, “They may not be Asters any more, but they will always be asters …”). All the asters I grow except for one are Midwest USA natives and straight …
gardeninacity 