for native plant gardeners & stewards in Toronto and southern Ontario
Asters spending ray petals...
“When we’re on our knees, rooting around in the soil … what we’re learning are the fine, specific details of our home place, the things that make it unique. …This alertness is, I think, the key to finding a way to live on this earth with spirited wonder and mindful humility –necessary approaches if we’re to begin the crucial work that is ahead: the work of healing the planet. We need people to connect with their home places and learn about them and understand them and see and feel and know what they’re doing to them, and what’s happening to the earth. We need stewards and nurturers and people who care. We need gardeners." -
5 comments:
Maybe purple stemmed if it's a swamp but looks more like panicled.
hey steve! how are you? missed you. :)
panciled eh? i dunno there cowboy. ;)
hey, for kicks i just emailed Paul Heydon to come over here and straighten us out :P
btw: y'know what he told me about you??
That he likes your plantings because when he's in them, he can't tell he's in a restoration! :)
That's a great compliment. I'll have to thank him. Missed you too.
Panicled has red stems and white flowers and narrow leaves like htis one. Purple stemmed (swamp) has mauve flowers (occ. white but rare) and wider leaves. I've seen panicles still in flower this week, New Englands are mostly gone, heaths are gone, big-leaved are gone. I have a heart-leaved in full flower in my yard that's beautiful still.
Hey Steve :)
So Paul says "the aster is swamp aster (Symphyotrichum puniceum)."
I'll take him as an authority on these things. :)
Thanks for weighing in. Makes me feel better, and helped prove the point too: Asters (and goldenrods, not to mention willows and hawthorns) are subtle for most folks, even in the native plant crowd. The Field Botanists of Ontario can still fill up aster & goldenrod ID workshops in the fall, with, well, botanists. :)
Pictures were a bit too close to be sure of the leaves. I'm wrong. I'll go with Paul's ID any day.
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