By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on September 27, 2002
The October plant recommended by Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) is the reliable and easy-to-grow perennial aster, known as “autumn aster” or “fall aster” or “wild-blue aster.”
This fall bloomer has a lot going for it. It puts on a multitude of attractive small blue flowers in the fall, grows in almost any soil and any setting, doesn’t need water and fertilizer once established, faithfully comes back from winter year after year, and is available at our local nurseries.
You won’t find “autumn aster” in books on Texas wildflowers. There are several wild blue asters in Texas and some cultivated hybrids too.
Even the experts have a hard time distinguishing them.
What you find in many nurseries is Aster spp., which means it could be one of the native species or it could be a hybrid. Commonly the origin is unknown.
The aster we bought for our yard closely resembles, at least to our non-professional eyes, the native Texas “tall aster” (Aster praealtus).
In fall or early winter, it puts on a multitude of small lavender-blue flowers with yellow centers.
Blue is my favorite color, and every fall I ask myself why I never got around to spreading that aster to more parts of our yard.
Asters typically are two or three feet high and in time can spread to a clump a few feet wide. Judging from our experience, autumn asters tend to have floppy branches that stay close to the ground when planted in heavy shade. They are more erect in sunny spots.
Our blue aster seems to be no problem to transplant. After it got established where I planted it in the shade, the plant began to spread out.
One early winter, I dug up part of the new growth and transplanted it to a sunny spot. It took hold easily and continues to add growth.
Of course, when they are first planted, asters need water. All native plants require water when first transplanted. In just a short time, however, asters seem to be able to subsist without routine watering. Natural rainfall takes care of ours.
The blue asters in our yard can take below-freezing weather without dying back. Even when a hard freeze kills them, they never fail to leaf out in the spring.
Occasionally we even get a few days of bloom in the spring.
A couple of things that bother some gardeners are that asters tend to get “die-back” of the lower leaves, and they send out rhizomes that expand the size of the plant.
In gardens asters may need to be placed in back of other plants which could hide the dead lower leaves, and they need to be planted where there is a little room to spread. Instructions for growing asters are available free at the nurseries participating in the NICE! program: Barkley’s Nursery Center, Boerne in Bloom, Fair Oaks Nursery, Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, and Where Wild Things Grow.
Three native species of aster grow wild in our yard. We have an informal garden that allows us to take advantage of plants that come up naturally. Many of them compliment the cultivated plants, and they provide us with an everchanging array of color and texture.
My favorite aster native to our yard is the Texas aster (Aster texanus). It gets up to three feet high, has large spearhead-shaped leaves, and is loaded with small lavender flowers in the fall.
Another species that sprouted up not far from our Texas aster is the white aster (Aster ericoides). It has tiny leaves on its many branches and has grown to be two feet high and three feet wide. In the fall it is densely covered with small white flowers.
A second white-blooming aster growing wild in our yard is the hierba del marrano (Aster subulatus). It has many green branches but few leaves, giving it a skeletal look. This aster is not especially attractive until it is in full bloom.
Every fall we can look forward to the floral display in our backyard when the autumn aster and the three native asters all bloom at once.
