Let your asters play a dual role. The foliage of these plants was useful all summer in hiding spaces left by Oriental poppies and spring bulbs.
The two dozen hardy aster plants in our garden play two important roles. Not only do they furnish fall color but they earn their keep all summer by hiding bare spots left by early blooming plants.
If you’ve wondered how to hide the bare holes left by Oriental poppies, hardy aster plants will solve the problem. If you love delphiniums in June but loathe their yellowing stalks in July, let hardy asters put up a screen of foliage. Or, if you have prominent areas reserved for spring bulbs, let dwarf perennial asters spread over the bulbs when they are dormant.
There is no lovelier or more useful plant than aster Frikarti, sometimes called Wonder of Stafa. And a wonder it is for it blooms from July right on through October. The clear lavender blue flowers are the largest of all my asters.
We admired this enchanting aster for several years before we realized what a grand cover-up job one plant was doing in front of a dormant Oriental poppy. The flamboyant poppies were brighter than a carnival that May but only a memory in August. And there was aster Frikarti doing its best to spread a haze of lavender bloom over the dormant poppies! So we loosened its stakes and allowed it to cover the poppy bed. Now, wherever you see a clump of Oriental poppies blooming in our May garden you’ll see the young shoots of aster Frikarti pushing up in front of it.
But don’t expect these asters to do a bang-up job of screening the first year they’re planted. They’re well-behaved plants and won’t ramble all over the garden. Our oldest plants are five years old and they’ve never been divided. These are kept well staked since the flower-laden stalks reach 3 feet in height and 4 feet in width. In August, however, the stakes nearest the poppies are loosened to allow the asters to spread over the dormant plants.
In front of these asters. masses of white petunias add fragrance to the slimmer garden but soaking autumn rains eventually put an end to them. Then we invite aster Frikarti, still in full bloom, to lean forward and cover up for the departed petunias.
But let’s go back to delphiniums and the problem they present when they’ve finished blooming. In front of them we plant the tall hardy aster Harrington’s Pink. This older variety is still good but we plan to replace it with plants of the new pink varieties.
If you’re lucky enough to get a second crop of blooms from your delphiniums you won’t want to hide them with tall asters. In that event, use the medium-tall varieties. Pinch out the tips of these asters in July to keep them low and bushy.
All of these asters make good screens for early blooming foxgloves or Madonna lilies, too. If you have space, combine them with Japanese anemones and a few clumps of frosty white speciosum lilies.
Dwarf asters also play an important role in our flower borders. We use them singly or in groups of three as edging plants. Here they make spreading, moundlike screens for early bulbs, which are planted just in back of them.
There may be newer dwarf asters but we’re perfectly satisfied with Daphne and Blue Boy. Daphne grows 15 inches high and is covered with dainty pink blooms; Blue Boy is slightly taller with flowers opening a few weeks later.
Try growing some of these dwarf asters in pots or planting boxes to replace early bulbs. Sink others, pots and all. in places where biennial sweet William or canterbury bells have been pulled up. If you want fall color in your rock garden, plant some there, too.
Try a few, or all, of these easy-going asters in your. flower borders and let them earn their board and room. They’ll work all summer to put up a screen of good foliage. Then when dew-laden nights and shorter days approach, the soft-colored flowers strike just the right note.
