I’m joining Gillian at Country Garden UK in her new weekly meme Looking Good in the Garden. She asks us to showcase what’s striking our fancy in our gardens each week and link back to her site, where we’ll see what’s special in other gardener’s plots around the globe.
I place asters at the top of my list this week. They are looking great and the bees are covering them, feverishly gathering pollen in these last days before frost ends this garden season.
The bright pink New England aster pictured here I believe is Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘Andenken an Alma Pötschke,’ which I’ve had for many years and very slowly has self-sown new plants throughout this bed. 
It grows to about four feet, then flops over when it blooms. I used to take better care of it, trimming it in early summer to keep it bushy and lower, and placing cages over it to keep it from flopping. The past couple of years I’ve grown lazy and just let it go do its thing and since the only other thing in the bed is Amsonia, it seems to work out.
As I’ve posted in my Monday vases, I’m loving my wild asters, particularly blue wood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolium). They form abundant mounds of blue-purple that are so pleasing to the eye.
And I can’t go without mentioning the calico asters (Symphyotrichum lateriflorum), shown here with a happy bumblebee and the giant, white, lance-leaved 
asters (Symphyotrichum lanceolatum) that loom overhead, some over six feet tall, swaying in the breeze like great daisy wands.
Eliza Waters 
I had some Asters years ago but the variety I had wouldn’t stay where I wanted them. So, I’m enjoying your beautiful photos. 🙂
Thank you, Judy. The wild ones do self-sow a lot, but since most of my yard is wild, (and even my regular gardens are heading in that direction 😉 ) I don’t really mind their wandering!
Beatuiful! I loved the pics of your flowers – and the little visitors! Blessings, Sarah
Many thanks, Sarah! Have a lovely weekend!
Goregous!
Or Gorgeous… 😉
😀 Thanks, Julie! Have a great weekend.
I love asters too but don’t grow many. I wonder if your wild asters would grow here in NW England? I can see a bit of research and some nursery visits coming up for me! You are happy with your taller asters doing their own thing and why not… in a country garden you don’t want things too straight and regimented and uniform. Let the parks do that and we will celebrate character in our plants! Thanks very much for linking up with Looking Good. Your support is most welcome.
Thanks for hosting, Gillian. I think you got a good turnout for the first week.
I’d expect asters to do well in your area. They are very frost hardy and there are so many great species and tons of cultivars to choose from!
Yes. I am thrilled that 8 bloggers joined in for week 1. Thanks for the reply about Asters – checking them out locally now.
I love all asters—those “star” flowers—but I was especially taken with the calico asters, which I have never seen in central Maine. I’ll be on the look-out.
I can always send you some seeds if you’re interested. Just email me. 🙂
Looks so good Eliza! Have an especially wonderful weekend! 😃
Thanks, Storm and the same to you. Are you getting all that rain?
My pleasure. No rain this way, stay safe…:)
Beautiful fall asters! Nice to see that bee feeding on the blooms! Mine (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) will bloom up in October–looking forward to that.
Thank you, Tina. Asters quietly wait in the background all summer, then wow, what a show they put on! Certainly makes it worth the wait!
Beautiful photographs Eliza 🌸
Many thanks, Frances. 🙂
So delicate. You have an eye for beauty in the garden! 🙂
Thanks so much, Dor. Have a great weekend!
How sweet and lovely photos Eliza 🙂
Thank you, Ann. 🙂
I have just bought a couple of Asters, the bees certainly love them! Hopefully I will be buying more for my late border in the garden. Thanks for leaving a message.
I love to stand still and just listen to their humming! 😉
Looking good! – No great!
Thank you very much! 🙂
Ha, that is funny, because I just spent Thursday morning staking our Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘Andenken an Alma Pötschke’, which had flopped following heavy rain. I adore the calico asters. I had a couple of ‘Lady in Black’, but I seem to have lost them this last year. Beautiful photos.
Thank you very much!
What a great idea for a meme! I’ll plan to join in. Love your asters, Eliza. And what a special header you have now! Have you seen ‘Bing’s search page today? Synchronicity!
I hope you do, you have so many wonderful plants to showcase in your garden. I went to Bing to have a look and got waylaid by the news – haha! I don’t watch TV, as I may have told you, so it doesn’t take much to distract me. 😀
the news has been extremely distracting lately 😉
How lovely. I am looking forward to everyone’s garden photos. Thank you for visiting my blog.
Thank you, Patricia.
Love those daisy wands Eliza!
Thanks, Val. Very magical! 😉
Your garden must be a real treat. These are beautiful.
Thanks, Lisa. I do love where I live, it is truly beautiful all year around, but esp. in the summer, when I spend most of my days outside. 🙂
Lovely.
Thank you!
What beautiful wildflowers you have there Eliza!
Thank you, Maria. I would say the same about P.R.!
Pingback: Looking Good | Forest Garden
Glad you are joining us!
Now that I know the Latin names, I’m wondering about the reduction to “aster.” On the other hand, the flowers, as you show and describe them, seem happy in their non-individual effusions. (I meant to say , explosions!)
The genus only recently was changed from Aster (Greek for ‘star’ which each flower resembles) to Symphyotrichum. Taxonomists are really messing with us these days! 😉
Great pictures. I have them both and have vases full around the house
Thanks, Carole. They are our last hurrah of the growing season. 🙂
Your asters are all so beautiful, especially the bright pinks. 🙂
Thank you, Robin. They do put on a fine show this time of year!
Lovely, Eliza. I am enjoying my asters here to. They are my birth month flower. They always are the first to gently nudge me out of my denial that winter is on its way.
Thanks, Mary. All through Sept. I am in denial, too. (Glad to know I have company!) Then around this time, after the equinox, I come to terms with it. I just try to see the best in every day. At least the sun still feels warm. Soon it won’t be strong enough to do that anymore, I try to appreciate it while I can. 🙂 How cold does it get where you live?
The coldest it has been since I have been here is 17 below 0. It gets below 0 frequently, but doesn’t stay there. During the days it is usually in the 20s in winter, or 30s. It is usually sunny, so even cold days are pleasant with warm clothes. I do not like the bitter, biting wind, though. I do like the hibernating-ness of winter. I don’t do as much in winter, so I spend a lot of time by the fire reading or writing. I like that part. It’s a lot of work to heat with wood, and I dread that, but when we have a big wood pile, I always feel secure. Asters are saying, “go cut some wood, Mary and Bill!” Haha. How about you? How cold?
Our temps. are very similar… even though you are at a lower latitude, your altitude must make it colder. Winter is too long here in New England! We heat with wood, too, but have gas furnace back-up, so we don’t have to get up to feed the fire in the middle of the night. I tend to stay pretty close to the stove in winter! I dread the suiting up every time I go outside and miss the casual warmth of summer. We haven’t had to have a fire yet, as this time of year we get a lot of passive solar that keeps the house pretty warm. Soon enough, however…
I agree with Mary. I love seeing the asters but it is a little bittersweet. They make such a nice spray of colour in the woods but I also know they are a beacon for winter.
I try not to think about that too much, but I know what you mean. I suffer less if I just keep my mind on the present moment! 😉
I’m so excited when I see flowers. Thank u for nice pics.
Grateful thanks! Flowers are a big part of my life – they spread such joy. 🙂
Asters are very much like daisies, aren’t they? I love daisy-like flowers: they always seem to me to be smiling up at the sun with their wide open faces. Perhaps that sounds trite, but they do look that way to me.
I,too, love daisies for their cheerfulness. Yes, asters are in the same Compositae family.
Beautiful Eliza! I have spent the past three days on our new lake property and notice there is an abundance of golden rod but also those lovely purple asters. It is my goal to leave everything alone at the lake to do its thing and only to plant true natives. There won’t be any landscaping with the exception of paths to get to and fro. It is so exciting. I love all the asters you’ve pictured here. In my village garden I have tried to propagate the purple by throwing seed heads in the beds and one year I did manage a few but they have never taken off – only those tiny white asters – they pop up everywhere and take over. I am loving the change to Fall. I am loving my garden again even though I still haven’t found time to set up a few dates.
Thank you, Kathy. Going natural at your lake house will keep you in relax mode as opposed to got-to-garden mode!
Love the asters, they flower here at Easter time it’s great to see them in your garden.
Thank you, the asters this fall have been wonderful! So you must be enjoying the start of the gardening season! Lucky you! 🙂