NEW ENGLAND ASTERS ARE BLOOMING

NEW ENGLAND ASTER...

...TOOK OVER THE GARDEN AND I ROUGED THEM OUT..

...NOW I MISS THEM AND WANT SOME BACK

Friday, 8:00 AM.  59 degrees F at the ferry dock, 55 0n the back porch.  Wind NNE, calm with light gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 87%.  Barometer 30.24" and dropping, predicting a rainy weekend and beyond.  Big tree delivery and planting job today, got to go to work.
   The New England aster, Aster Novae-Angliae, in the Sunflower Family, is a tall, vigorous perennial with fairly large compound, purple flowers. A similar plant with pink flowers is the New Belgium aster. Most aster flowers have yellow centers. The New England aster is often seen in the garden, and is also called St. Michaelmas daisy, as it comes into bloom about that saint’s day, September 29, in England, and is often planted in churchyards for that reason. It is the last aster to come into bloom.
   I am not aware of any medicinal or economic uses of the asters, their beauty alone makes them valuable, and for most of us it is O.K. to recognize them all as asters, and enjoy them as that.  Like goldrnrods, they are a complicated lot, and I am satisfied with knowing onk=ly a handful of then well.
   I made a decision a year ago yo rogue them out of the garden, as they had taken over and dominated all summer before they finally bloomed in fall.  Now I wish I had not been so thorough, and had left a few.  I'll have to plant one or two again.