Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Appreciating the aster: The cheerful, abundant flowers will persist until hard frosts set in
Published: 10-11-2024 10:03 AM |
Many gardens go drab this time of year after summer flowers have faded away. But in fields and along roadsides, swaths of native asters add explosions of color to the transitioning landscape, with their golden centered, star-shaped flowers ranging from deep purple, blue and lavender to pink and white. As I was beginning to write this piece, my friend Russ happened to tell me about his excitement at discovering the many hues of an aster-filled field behind Smith College.
If asters can do this for wide open, untended spaces, imagine what they can do for your perennial beds.
Asters fill a special niche in the garden by extending the growing season through the fall. Their cheerful, abundant flowers will persist until hard frosts set in. And they step in to provide nourishment for bees, butterflies and other pollinators when other flowers have gone by.
Asters are a popular and dependable food source for Monarch butterflies, which rely on the nectar of late-season blooms to fuel their fall migration. There’s no lovelier sight than a bright orange butterfly feasting on a purple aster on a crisp September afternoon. In winter, asters’ spiky skeletons provide visual interest and their seedheads feed birds such as cardinals, chickadees, finches and nuthatches.
Asters are members of the daisy family (Asteraceae), along with dahlias, marigolds and sunflowers. The two most common types of asters in our area are the New England aster (Symphyotrichumnovae-angliae) and the New York aster (S. novi-belgii). These North American natives became popular with European gardeners, who shipped them across the Atlantic beginning around 1680.
New England and New York asters bear similar flowers in the same range of colors — purple, blue, pink and white — but New York asters tend to be shorter and denser, growing two-to-three-feet tall, and they have thin stems and smooth leaves. New England asters can grow to six feet with thicker stems and hairy leaves. (For some reason, my dog Luisa loves to chew on the hairy leaves of my New England aster.)
Both New York and New England asters have dwarf forms that grow to less than 18 inches and spread readily. Both varieties are larval hosts for the Pearl Crescent butterfly; it lays its eggs on the plant and its caterpillars feed there. These asters remind us of the mutually beneficial relationship between native plants and pollinators and other fauna.
Asters are easy keepers in the garden. Young plants are best planted in spring, after the danger of frost has passed. Potted mature asters are available in late summer and early fall and can be planted directly into the garden.
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Make sure to tease apart the compacted roots so they can settle in and spread in their new home. Cuttings can be rooted in water and planted out in the garden, where they often will bloom the first year. A vigorous “Chelsea Chop” — cutting back a third to a half of the plant in early summer — will keep the plant compact and bloom-laden. Some of the taller varieties will still need staking to prevent flop-over. The plants benefit from being divided every few years, when the center develops a dead spot.
Asters do not like wet conditions and they need adequate space to give them air circulation to discourage mildew. Most asters prefer full sun and humus-rich soil, but some are not so particular. The white wood aster (Aster divaricatus) tolerates dry shade and average to poor soil. You have no doubt seen this hardy plant in woodland areas. It makes a ground cover that spreads by rhizomes and forms large colonies over time. Plants tend to stay below 24 inches, but more sun, moisture and richer soil will likely add more growth. Depending on climate and planting conditions, it will retain its foliage, which turns a dark burgundy color.
Asters have a long and colorful history. The name comes from the Greek word for star. According to the Farmers’ Almanac, Greek myth has it that asters were born from the tears of Astraea, the virgin goddess of justice, innocence, purity and precision.
Aster flowers were considered to be sacred to Greek and Roman gods. The leaves were burned by ancient Greeks and Romans to ward off serpents and evil spirits. The Almanac also tells us that more recently asters came to symbolize revolution, when supporters of a Hungarian revolt following World War I wore asters on their hats as they demonstrated in the streets of Budapest. And the French ceremonially placed asters on the graves of fallen soldiers during World War II.
Not surprisingly, asters have inspired New England writers through the years. Emily Dickinson appreciated asters for their humble simplicity. In a letter to her close friend Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield Republican, she referred to the aster as the “everlasting fashion” of eternity. The American writer and poet Celia Thaxter, a lifelong Maine gardener and author of a wonderful book called “The Island Garden,” wrote, “The asters twinkle in clusters bright, while the corn grows ripe and the apples mellow.”
There is something truly special about the aster, whose gem-like flowers keep impending austerity at bay just a while longer. Robert Frost, in his heart-stirring poem “A Late Walk,” recognized the aster as a symbol of hope as winter approaches:
When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.
And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words.
A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.
I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.
Mickey Rathbun is an Amherst-based writer whose new book, “The Real Gatsby: George Gordon Moore, A Granddaughter’s Memoir,” has recently been published by White River Press.