To most of us, fall color means the brilliant oranges and reds of the turning maple leaves. While other trees play their part, it’s the blazing maples that draw the crowds. This year the peak season may be shortened and dulled by summer’s drought, but the show will surely still be one of Maine’s most spectacular moments.
It’s easy to get so caught up in the foliage above our heads that we overlook those other contributors to spectacular fall color — the late-flowering herbaceous perennials. The standard-bearer for these is the common New England aster, which fills roadside ditches and banks with amazing purples and pinks — wonderful contrasts to the foliage colors on the opposite side of the color wheel.
New World asters were reclassified in the 1990s under a new genus (Symphyotrichum, for the botany nerds) — but American gardeners still know them as asters. It’s a complicated genus. Besides the tall, vibrant-hued New England asters, there are many other muted blue and white ones — lovely native flowers to be admired from your car or on hikes. If you are interested in bringing asters into your garden, the New Englanders are the prime contenders.
In my garden, I count at least five different colors — two purple-blues, two pinks and a white one. I grow them with — or rather, I let them go wild in the company of — brown-eyed Susans. They are both enthusiastic self-seeders that threaten to overrun my flower beds, and some hard-hearted weeding of rogue seedlings is needed every spring, but the burst of bright color that lasts right into mid-October is well worth it.
The flowers are pollinator-attractor superstars. Every morning I find sleepy bees waiting for the sun to warm them, and they are visited by all manner of other insects throughout the day. They appear to be indifferent to the drought and are shunned — for the most part — by deer.
Their only real drawback is that the lower leaves on the tall stems die off before the flowers open, giving the plants the appearance of wearing dirty socks. The easy solution is to plant them behind something low that retains good foliage into the fall. In my flower bed, I rely on self-seeded annual calendula, which will stay in bloom past the first light frosts.
Asters are not the only native plants that wait until fall to bloom. New York ironweed, black cohosh and blue star are all worth adding to a garden with enough space. The blue star is grown primarily for its fall foliage — a soft yellow, feathery mass.
The challenge for gardeners is to remember to buy and plant fall-flowering perennials in spring. In the planting frenzy that follows long winters here, the urge is to plant anything and everything that shows any color.
Late-flowering perennials with attractive summer foliage — such as the popular tall sedums and gray-leafed Russian sage — fare better among spring shoppers, but late bloomers with dowdy foliage are often overlooked.
When next spring arrives and you look to add new plants to your garden, remember how glorious a garden can be in fall, and seek out perennials that will bring color, joy — and bees — long after the summer display is over.