![]() ![]() Most of these plants are still commonly known as asters, even if they aren’t technically part of the aster genus. However, don’t let the botanical naming conventions confuse you. Some flowers previously known as asters are now labeled Eucephalus, Oreostemma, or Symphyotrichum , among many others. That number has since been reduced to around 180 due to the reclassification of some of the plants. Up until the 1990s, asters comprised over 600 species of plants. ![]() The plants were hybridized and cross-bred to create the dramatic diversity in color and size we have today.Īster can be a confusing genus. The flowers were grown across the country, becoming somewhat of an obsession. Asters fell high on that list due to their variety and stunning flowers.īrought back to Europe from North America, Asters perfectly suited the wilder, more informal cottage garden style exploding around Victorian England. While there isn’t much known about the origins and spread of this popular plant, we do know when they gained their popularity.Īround the 18 th century, when plant collecting and studies were beginning to take off, botanists traveled the world in search of new and interesting plant varieties. The name aster derives from the Ancient Greek for ‘star’, describing the star-like shape of the flowers. Time to get star.Plant History and Cultivation Asters have long been used in gardens all around the world. Under better conditions along with competitive species these tough plants seem to lose out. The fireweed seems to be in a similar situation.Ī theme that I have seen repeated with 'tough' native species is that they can excel in difficult environments with sparse, infertile, or dry soils in part because there is little competition. In the garden it fared better but was overcome by surrounding plants. The pearly everlasting looks like it got water logged in regular potting soil. It is getting established in locations that are in the shade with dry to average soils. The wood mint has proven most adaptable so far. Getting the soil moisture/drainage/light levels just right for these species has proven tricky. I did encounter problems after potting these up into regular potting soil. I got high levels of germination from wood mint, fireweed and pearly everlasting. The lower temperature stratification really helped. It became less clear that these were all red maples. Most of them had the 3-lobed leaves indicative of red maple. Here's my collection of maple seedling after I potted them up last spring. Later this spring I will start putting them in. They all seemed to have overwintered successfully under some shrubs along the garage foundation. Weren’t as deeply divided as a sliver maple, but not all simply 3-lobed like These seedlings could be any of these or even a cross between red and silver,īut as they developed it became harder to tell from the leaf shape, they Since we have sugar, red, and silver maples here it is possible that Seem to be a good choice (and they’re free). I wanted to give the newly opened up woods a Last year I potted up some of the red maples that were coming fromĪilanthus that were dominating the canopy in one area of my woods. They are continuing to spread but they have not out-competed the vinca. These Green and Gold, are doing well in an area that was covered in vinca. Also some of my big-leaf aster will go in, This year I decided to get moving again on Not expanding rapidly, I have high hopes for the hay scented fern, Dennstaedtia punctiloba, but it has notĮxpanded much in its first 3 years. Alum root, Heuchera villosa and cultivars, and foamflower, Tiarella cordifolia, are surviving but That are doing well and slowly expanding are Green and Gold, Chrysogonum virginianum, and To test some species to see which ones were strong competitors in this dry, Vinca that was growing along our shady driveway and replace it with native When we first moved here one of my goals was to rip out all the ![]()
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