All in Good Time

Silver aster - Symphyotrichum concolor

Walter"s aster - S. walteri

Fall is rapidly passing by right now and a great many of my wildflowers are going to seed. On one hand, this is what I've been waiting for all year as I'm collecting the seed I need for next year at Hawthorn Hill, but as the procession of nectar plants go to seed, my garden becomes ever more reliant on the few that bloom late in the year. Most of these are in the aster family - and most of my asters are what I call "true asters" - genus Symphyotrichum. Plants that bloom late take a big chance with pollinators. If the weather turns cold early, many of the bees, butterflies and the like will have gone dormant for the winter. By blooming after nearly everything else, though, they have the still-active pollinators all to themselves. There simply is no other game in town.
My wildflower garden is back to normal these past few weeks. It is abuzz with bees and butterflies for the most part and I am continually reminded how important it is to plan a garden to provide nectar and pollen in all seasons. Late fall is aster time. Many are done for the year, but I still have two yet to flower. My scaleleaf aster - S. adnatum, is reaching for the sky right now and setting hundreds of buds. My Carolina climbing aster (S. carolinianum) also is setting large numbers of buds. When they open, there may well be no other wildflowers to compete with for the attention of the remaining pollinators. Today, it is the Walter's aster (S. walteri) and the silver aster (S. concolor) that are spectacular.
A pollinator garden must consider a great many things, but one of the very most important is having a plan that considers the sequential blooming times of your wildflowers.  In early spring, while a great many of my plants will just start emerging from the bare soil, I'll have to have a few species that mature extra early. At that time of year, my asters are mostly useless, though a few of the aster family species, like some of my Coreopsis, should be available. Late fall, heading into winter, is the other often-difficult time.
For some reason, not explainable in my mind, most Symphyotrichum asters are not widely propagated by native nurseries in Florida. They are in other states I've lived in, but here I've mostly had to grow my own from seed collected as I hike about. Things like this need to change here as the interest in pollinator gardens increases by leaps and bounds. I grow many in my hobby nursery - hoping that someday the real nursery folks will take up the cause. I'm betting that they will.
Most asters are extremely tolerant of growing conditions and tough as nails. It is not always the case that you have to match them perfectly with the growing conditions they are found in naturally. If that were so, my Georgia aster would have succumbed a great many months ago as would my Garberia.

Garberia - G. heterophylla in my landscape today

The one possible downside is knowing which ones sucker aggressively and make poor neighbors in a mixed planting. Elliott's aster, (S. elliottii), for example, is an incredible pollinator magnet, but given good/moist conditions, it can reach 6-8 feet high and sucker so aggressively that there is no room for anyone else.  I use it in large naturalized plantings, but I've had to weed it out of past landscapes.
I figure that I still have a good month ahead where I will have a wealth of blooming plants for my pollinators. By that time, most of them will have retired for our brief winter. Then it will be time for something else to take the lead. Right  now, it is a good day at Hawthorn Hill.

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