Purple Majesty

This is the garden a couple of years ago. The aster is on the corner. It is now...much bigger and ready to pop with color. Here are the blooms up close. The bee seems to enjoy it too. Actually the plant is a favorite of bees and will be full of them when open.

Soon enough the wild asters will be blooming in fields and along roadsides....why plant them in the garden? We can enjoy them while out driving. Here is a little about this fall beauty.

Well, the above used to be the typical American attitude toward this plant. But hop across the Atlantic and you'll find that the British felt quite differently.They have always loved their fall asters. Later on ... back across the pond, we Americans, seeing what was going on in England, fell in love with this bright and vibrant addition to our gardens. We found that so many flowers are losing their beauty just about the time that these flourish. We liked having this wonderful flower to look forward to in the fall.We followed the Brits and began our love affair with asters.
Native American asters went full circle: I'm so glad that after being loved in Europe..they found their way back across the ocean into many American gardens.They are at home in cottage and formal gardens.
These plants have even shed their American name, coming back with the British name "Michaelmas daisies." Michaelmas is the feast of St. Michael the Archangel, celebrated in England on Sept. 29 — about when asters are in bloom.
The two American species that most won the hearts of the British were our New England aster and New York aster. It's not easy to tell New England and New York asters apart, especially since the wild plants you see might also be offspring of these two. Sex in the garden...who knew? Generally, the New England aster is the larger of the two, growing up to 6 feet high and wide, with flowers a somewhat deeper violet.
Deliberate hybrids of either of these two asters have the yellow eyes of the species, but the petal color and plant size may vary. For instance, Purple Dome is a New England aster with purple flowers on a 2-foot-tall plant. Among New York asters, come in crimson, purple, white and never growing more than a foot high. Yesterday while cleaning up the flower bed near the drive, I cut back some flowers and pulled others out. My huge aster plant on the corner is just beginning to open. It is the focal point of my "cottage garden bed." She will take the stage for a time on her own and then the mums come into their own. I love the vibrant color. Fall is coming...deep purples, oranges, rust, bright yellow, deep burgundy....jewel like colors in my yard.

Balisha