Rob's plants
home garden plants wildlife seed photos
plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook

Symphyotrichum sp.

 
Symphyotrichum sp.

Symphyotrichum sp.

Family asteraceae
Life cycle perennial
Size 6'
Cultural notes moist-wet soil
From seed germinate at room temperature, do not exclude light
detailed seed-starting info below
Seed ripensearly November

I don't know exactly what species this will be. I got the seed from James in Ohio, who wrote:

This is a BIG plant; the flowering stems were just over six feet tall. The flowers are about the size of a half dollar and have numerous, thin rays of a pale sky blue color with a touch of violet. The seeds need no cold treatment, but are rather slow. This species is mostly aquatic, but it will grow anywhere moist.


Writing now in early September of their second year in our garden - last year, we planted a few in a large pot in our pond, and a couple in a neglected area of our orchard. Plants survived in both places, and have now sent up tall stalks, that appear to be heading towards bloom.
October update - both clumps are blooming. The flowers are quite nice by themselves - just what you'd expect from a close relative of asters (many asters have recently been recharacterized as symphyotrichums). On the other hand, the foliage, which was decent-looking if a bit ordinary most of the year, has gotten rather ugly. Conclusion: not the most gardenworthy asteroid, but OK tucked in between other tall wildflowers.

Symphyotrichum sp.
floppy and brown
Symphyotrichum sp.

Another unidentified aster species, this one left behind as a gift from a fellow gardener during a garden tour, identified only as "tall blue aster", with a note it attracts butterflies. It started blooming in early October, and looks particularly nice in this autumn combination with maiden grass, early November.

We left this plant behind in our Pennsylvania garden (and wish it well); we don't grow it in Houston.

About my plant portraits


Seed-starting details for this plant

  1. Seed from '04 trade. Baggy 70F (25%G, 7-21d) - 70F with light (60%G, 3-16d)


I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

Your name

Your comments