Fall for New England Asters This Season

by KYW's Phran Novelli

Pretty, tidy, and totally filling with flowers -- what used to be a blank spot in my side yard. New England asters are blooming right now, like tiny shrubs full of lush green leaves and positively covered with flowers, purple rays that spray out from a golden yellow center. Known as New England asters, they're actually native from Quebec down to the Carolinas, and they bloom in the fall when other perennials have pooped out and even annuals usually look exhausted.

And unlike those other flowers you see everywhere this time of year -– chrysanthemums (which are from Asia) -– our native asters welcome bees, give all kinds of butterflies a place to raise their babies, and feed finches and other birds with their seeds.

New selections of New England asters like 'Purple Dome,' need no pinching back or staking, they just grow all summer into a neat mound about 18" high until about now, when they burst into bloom. Go get yourself some New England asters!

(Photo by Phran Novelli. New England asters in bloom and welcoming a pollinator. The Latin name for the plant is Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (L.)