The Last of the Asters for 2019

Scaleleaf aster (Symphyotrichum adnatum)

Carolina climbing aster (Symphyotrichum/Ampelaster carolinianum)
I truly became interested in native plants after moving to Florida in 1987. With two cohorts, we created a program at the University of Florida within the Department of Wildlife Ecology known as the Cooperative Urban Wildlife Program. Funded by the Nongame section of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, it was originally thought that we'd spend our time working with the public on their nuisance wildlife issues. It soon became apparent, however, that a lot of our time would instead be focused on creating landscapes for wildlife - and that meant native plants.
I arrived in Florida after spending 2 years at the University of Kentucky, five years of graduate school in Iowa and a lifetime before that in Wisconsin. I was not prepared for Florida. It was a whole new game and one I had to quickly learn.
In those early years, I soon became a convert of our showiest species - trees, shrubs and wildflowers, but it took a good number of years for me to fully appreciate the true asters. At the time, a great many were lumped into the genus Aster. Several years ago, taxonomists changed all that and removed all of them from that genus. In this move, most were moved into a new genus, Symphyotrichum, but a great many others were were moved into smaller genera.  All of them have great value to pollinators and I became interested in gaining more experience growing them in landscapes. For some reason, few have ever been reliably propagated by nurseries affiliated with FANN, the Florida Association of Native Nurseries, so my quest has largely been one of searching for seed to plant in my own landscape. As I look out over my landscape and my nursery tables, I find that I have added about one-half of the nearly 30 species of native Symphyotrichums. A few others, like Elliott's aster (S. elliottii) have been added to large landscapes I've worked on, but are very aggressive in small ones. Another few, have very specialized habitat needs and would be difficult in most home landscape settings. At least 20, however, should be widely propagated.
Today, the last of my asters began blooming. It's been a progression of aster flowers here that began with my late purple asters (S. patens), proceeded to my Georgia asters (S. georgianum) and then to my Walter's aster (S. walteri). With each, a procession of bees was quick to pollinate them. Plants that flower really late, like the scaleleaf aster (S. adnatum) and the Carolina climbing aster (S. carolinianum) provide pretty much the only flowers left in the landscape so they provide a really important role. It is risky, however, because in cold falls, the pollinators give up for the year and settle in for a "long winter's nap" until spring. In those years, the asters are largely not pollinated.  This is a warm fall and both are doing the job I planted them for.
As each aster has gone to seed, I've collected it for my nursery here. I hope that in 2020 I'll have 8 or more species available to others and that together we can build truly effective pollinator gardens. Time will tell.

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