Asters Instead of Mums
Aromatic Aster ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium “Raydon’s Favorite’). Photo taken October 22, 2022 in Yorktown. ©2022, Elana Goren.
Native Asters are an integral part of our local pollinators’ autumn menu. As one of the last-of-the-season, long-blooming perennials to flower, Asters are an essential nectar source for bees, butterflies and other pollinators who are still around as the days begin to grow cold. There are some varieties of Aster that provide a magnificent carpet of blooms that rival Mums any day. Important to our local ecosystem, Asters provide much needed food and cover to our local pollinators in ways that leave non-native Mums in the dust.
One amazing variety of Aromatic Aster is ‘Raydon’s Favorite’ (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium ‘Raydon’s Favorite’) which will form a dense shrub-like presence in the garden during the spring and summer and explode with bright, purple flowers in the fall. They can grow to 3 or 4 feet but cutting them back to 3/4 of their height around the middle of June will keep them lower and bushier for the rest of the season.
These wonderful plants will fill your garden, year after year and will provide for pollinators who are looking for nourishment during the latter months of the year. When the weather starts getting colder, your heart will warm watching the pollinators eagerly visiting these Asters’ purple masses of blooms.
