We got an early taste of fall this week in east Texas. The mornings were in the 50’s. Though it warmed up quick, the air still held a base chill throughout the day. Or, maybe it was just the cold front knocking the humidity down.
With the return of the cooler weather, albeit short-lived cooler weather, the asters have started in earnest, and I so love them. In the past few years, they have become one of my favorite groups of plants since moving into our log cabin. How can anyone not love natives smothered with light blue, purple, pink, white, and every color in between.
As I reviewed this week in plant id, asters have a classic head inflorescence, ray florets on the outside that advertise the bloom to pollinators and many disk florets on the inside where the pollination and seed set occur. It’s a successful pollination strategy, a testament being the aster family is the largest family of flowering plants in the world. And, the flowers are good at communicating. Many asters disks florets will change colors to indicate to pollinators that the flower is finished.
It seems I’ve inadvertently started an aster trial here at my house. I didn’t know how many I had until I compiled my list from my notes and realized I have over 20 taxa here. I have been tracking their flowering week by week so that I can build a calendar to know when they bloom so I can site them appropriately.
I’m working on a bloom calendar for the asters in my garden. Note that the colors reflect an approximation of the ray florets.
A few notes on care. Almost all asters were cut back at least once in late May. I’ve learned this is good practice to prevent them from looking haggard by the end of summer, where they have bare stems with tassels of leaves at the top.
I also struggle with some plants being triggered into flowering in March. Asters are photoperiodic and bloom during short days. I thought it was our security light messing with their rhythm; however, we had that turned off, and yet they still try to bloom. My hypothesis is that here in the deep south we have such good growth early in the spring that the plants have enough leaf tissue to perceive the changing light and attempt to bloom. Pruning back helps to prevent that.
Below I have shared images of the aster with the week it started blooming. Basically, if I saw one flower open that Monday, I counted it as coming into bloom that week.
AUGUST 23
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘White Lovely’ started to bloom first. I’ve written about this great aster before. It is the first aster each year to begin blooming for me, and the white flowers with yellow centers are a breath of freshness as we leave August.
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘White Lovely’ in early September
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘White Lovely’ in mid-September
AUGUST 30
I’ve had Symphyotrichum oolentangiense since 2019 when I picked one up at the Chicago Perennial Plant Association meeting. When it starts blooming, it lives up to its common name sky blue aster, as if the rays have reached out to the horizon and dipped themselves in a light blue sky. The flowers here in the south quickly fade more white. The habit seems to be a bit lax, the inflorescences flopping a bit. But, the early flowers are worth its relaxed growth.
Symphyotrichum oolentangiense
Also starting this week was ‘Coombe Fishacre’, one of my new favorite asters for color and floriferous growth. I was blown away how loaded with blooms this cultivar was, and even though it dates back to the 1920’s, I wondered why I had never heard of it before. ‘Coombe Fishacre’ is likely a hybrid between Symphyotrichum ericoides, which would explain the vigor, and Symphyotrichum novi-belgii.
Symphyotrichum ‘Coombe Fishacre’ in early September
Symphyotrichum ‘Coombe Fishacre’ in mid-September
Another aster that started blooming for me in late August was Eurybia hemispherica, a lovely, little used native aster that has spiky foliage and is adorned with starry flowers on top. ‘Pink Dawn’, a pink selection found by my colleague Dawn Stover, features a pink hue instead of the typical blue-purple seen in this species.
Eurybia hemispherica ‘Pink Dawn’
SEPT 6
Symphyotrichum ‘Bridal Veil’ is another incredible flowering aster that started flowering the first full week of September. This cultivar was bred by Dr. Jim Ault of the Chicagoland Grows program. Aster ericoides 'Snow Flurry' is reportedly a parent. The stems are very prostrate and loaded with small white flowers
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae 'Purple Dome' and Symphyotrichum novae-angliae 'Violetta' both also started blooming this week. I was hesitant against trying these since they are selections of a more northern genus; however, I realized in writing this post that the species does extend down into Mississippi and Alabama, so I suppose it is possible there is some heat tolerance there. ‘Violetta’ is a darker purple than ‘Purple Dome’, but it has a little less vigor so far. They are two of the darkest colored asters I grow.
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘Purple Dome’
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘Violetta’
Also starting to bloom this week was an aster I’ve had since I moved in. The first fall, I ordered a variety of plants, one of which was Aster novae-angliae 'Harrington's Pink'. It has struggled in the bed I had it in due to low soil pH and also trying every year to bloom in May. I moved a couple of small pieces to a new spot, and it has exploded into growth. Like ‘Purple Dome’ and ‘Violetta’, the flowers tend to be closed in the morning and open as the day progresses. That must be a characteristic of the New England asters.
Symphyotrichum lateriflorus 'Bleke Bet' is a classic calico aster where the center changes color after pollination. It starts a creamy white, and then after the flower is finished, the disk turns a much darker color. Again, this color change helps pollinators find the flowers that are ripe for pollination.
Symphyotrichum lateriflorus ‘Bleke Bet’
The blue-purple Eurybia hemispherica began flowering this week. You can compare the blue with the pink above to see the markedly different coloration. In growing this species, I’ve learned it is quite rhizomatous when happy.
Eurybia hemispherica
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum var. horizontalis 'Prince' also started blooming this week, but it is a very sad plant so far. I’m curious to see if it will do better next year. I’m not even posting a picture of the little sprig.
SEPT 13
Sadly, Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’ does not achieve the dark foliage color I have seen in photos. Alas, but it’s nice to have the small flowers bloom. I’ve noticed unlike ‘Bleke Bet’, the disks don’t show as much color change over time.
Symphyotrichum lateriflorum ‘Lady in Black’
I have about a dozen more asters coming into bloom as we continue into fall, so I will do a part two later likely in November to continue sharing which ones are growing well for me. Stay tuned!