My favorite autumn blooming flower is the aster. The benefit and beauty of asters seem to be lost to the chrysanthemum during September and October, but asters provide a mass of color ranging from white to pink to purple and everything in between for many weeks in the fall.
In recent years many nurseries have worked diligently on creating new species of asters from those already native to the United States. There are two main native asters that most cultivars are grown from: New England aster and the New York aster.
Aster novae-angliae is the botanical name for New England aster that grows in zones four through eight. New England aster is recognized by long four to five-inch hairy leaves. The flowers of this species are one to two inches in diameter with about 50 ray flowers surrounding a yellow center.
Notable cultivars of the New England aster are “Purple Dome” which flowers a little later than other asters in the fall. The plants are compact on one and a half to two foot tall plants. “Purple Dome” blooms are a lilac colored purple.
“Harrington’s Pink” is a tall New England aster. It reaches three to five feet in height and has long-lived salmon colored blossoms.
Fuschia colored flowers that curl slightly upward are found on the New England aster cultivar, “Alma Potschke.” This particular aster also grows quite tall – three to four feet.
The New York aster is botanically referred to as Aster novi-belgii, and it’s commonly referred to as “Michaelmas daisy” because it blooms around Sept. 29, St. Michael’s Day in Great Britain. The New York aster has smooth leaves and only 15 to 20 ray flowers around the yellow center of the flower.
New York asters also tend to be smaller than their New England counterpart.
“Wood’s Dwarfs” are eight to 12-inch tall New York asters that are available in purple-blue, (“Wood’s Purple”), pink (“Wood’s Pink”) and light blue (“Wood’s Light Blue”).
Also considered to be dwarf New York asters are “Professor Anton Kippenberg,” a 12-inch plant with lavender semi-double flowers, and “Little Pink Beauty,” which grows about 12 inches and is covered in pink semi-double flowers when blooming.
A notable larger New York aster is “Winston Churchill.” It grows two to three feet tall and had red blossoms in the fall.
In my next column, I will address growing and caring for asters.
This column is part 1 of 2.
Questions or comments related to gardening? Contact Joleen at missourigardener@hotmail.com
