![\"\"](\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Aster-OctoberSkies.jpg\" "\\"Aster")
<\/a>Aster 'October Skies' (photo courtesy of NorthCreek Nurseries, Landenburg, PA)<\/p><\/div>\n
Aromatic asters (Aster oblongifolius<\/em>) is one of our finest late blooming native asters for the autumn garden in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6 and 7). Through the spring and summer months, the dense gray-green shrubby foliage mounds grow 15-18 inches high and 24-30 inches wide. Hundreds of\u00a0yellow-centered, daisy type flowers cover the plants. Blooms average 1 1\/4 inches in diameter. The foliage emits a minty fragrance when crushed.<\/p>\n The botanical nomenclature of aromatic asters was recently changed to Symphyotrichum oblongifolium<\/em>. The two most popular cultivars are ‘October Skies’ with bluish ray flowers and \u2018Raydon\u2019s Favorite\u2019, a sister seedling, with blue-lavender ray flowers. Both cultivars work well\u00a0as part of a\u00a0border\u00a0or meadow planting, or in containers. Like most asters,\u00a0flowers attract numerous butterflies and\u00a0are excellent cut for a table arrangement.<\/p>\n Aromatic asters grow in an average soil and in full sun. In gardens asters benefit from additions of compost and fertilizer to the garden soil. Established asters are very\u00a0drought tolerant. Immediately after flowering, deadhead plants to reduce seed formation which may lead wild seedlings germinating in your garden in subsequent years. Using a sharp knife,\u00a0split apart\u00a0and tranplant emerging mounds of young shoots in early spring.<\/p>\n Aster yellows is a virus disease and their mortal \u201cAchilees\u2019 heel\u201d. The yellow virus is spread by sap feeding insects such as leafhoppers and aphids in spring and early summer. Prevention is your only option, using contact-type\u00a0insecticides. Aromatic asters demonstrate\u00a0better than average deer\u00a0resistance\u00a0if populations are not exceptionally high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aromatic asters (Aster oblongifolius) is one of our finest late blooming native asters for the autumn garden in the Southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6 and 7). Through the spring and summer months, the dense gray-green shrubby foliage mounds grow 15-18 inches high and 24-30 inches wide. Hundreds of\u00a0yellow-centered, daisy type flowers cover the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[795,707,749,521,778,627,625,630,1,754],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1976"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2017,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1976\/revisions\/2017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}