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| Asters at Battersea Power Station (London, UK) |
In America, gardeners flock to stores to plunk down their
money for imported plants. This time of year, it is Chrysanthemums that flood
the stores, carefully pruned to be full of lush flowers. “They must be so much
better!” The native pollinators are not as excited.
Unfortunately most of the mums sold are the cushion mums whose
double flowers provide little pollinator support (there are old-fashioned mums
with centers of flowers that contain pollen and nectar for the bees, but they
are rarely sold). None of the mums are native.
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| These two were labeled as New York aster |
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| in a private garden in Bath (UK) |
Instead we could be cultivating and using our native asters,
a group of flowers which seem to get more appreciation in a place where it is the
imported plant: Europe! I recently spent some time in England and was surprised
to see a number of native asters being used in designed plantings and personal
gardens. The mild October climate is similar to ours and these plants were
bursting with blooms.
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| Closer view of Battersea aster (I think it is calico aster - S. lateriflorum) |
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| Sidewalk gardens filled with asters at Battersea |
I cannot say enough good things about our native asters, including how important they are to our native insects. My small white asters are buzzing with bees right now. If I’ve piqued your interest, here are some of my previous aster posts:
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