Thursday, June 2, 2011

An Early Aster

Ohh False Asters are blooming.... no, wait, that's a Real Aster! Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, the New England Aster, and it's blooming as a complete flook. It's planted right along the house in a sunny spot so it's constantly warm specifically around the soil. So the plant isn't producing green growth but at the same time it can't go fully dormant. So the logical thing for the plant to do is assume we're having an odd year and bloom at the earliest convenience. I'm not complaining but this is sort of annoying. They normally bloom from August to October.

Another possibility I should look into is weather the roots are stressed in some way. Often when you see plants blooming at the nursery it's because the roots have no where to grow so energy is put elsewhere. For example at Lowes right now they have goldenrods for sale that are already blooming. I was tempted to pick one up but I already have to many species of those as it is.