What Is This, Pray Tell?

I found this beauty a couple of weeks ago while removing last season's dead growth from the aromatic aster (Symphoytrichum oblongifolium). I thought at first it must be a caterpillar cocoon, but now I'm thinking it might be a praying mantis egg case!

Even more excitingly, I think it's an egg case from one of our native North American praying mantis species. That's good news, because apparently there are also exotic, invasive praying mantis species that may have detrimental effects on local ecosystems.

I Love some October in September! :)

Aren't October Skies beautiful?

I love our native 'October Skies' aster (Symphyotrichum oblongifolium) - and so do the many bees and other little pollinators that mob the profuse flowers.

Planning to add some more of these to the garden next spring...

The Tallest and Skinniest Bluebird Ever?

Symphotrichum laeve 'Bluebird' (smooth aster) in the middle here between a DeGroot's Spire arborvitae and an unhappy looking inherited azalea. In the foreground, you can see a small clump of false heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia), which I understand is used as an evergreen shrub in the Deep South, but will almost certainly behave like an annual here.

This is my first year growing Symphyotrichum laeve, commonly known as 'smooth aster'.

The cultivar I'm growing (which I think is more often found in the trade than the straight species) is called 'Bluebird'.

The only other aster I've grown has been Symphyotrichum oblongifolium 'October Skies' (aromatic aster), which has a very bushy growth habit.

I naively assumed that Bluebird might grow the same way. So imagine my surprise when this single, unbranched stem shot up about 5 feet in the air!

It's recently shown some inclinations of branching near the top - and another stem has emerged from the ground at the base of the plant - so I'm thinking perhaps a clump will develop after all.

For now, it looks a bit funny all by its lonesome growing next to a DeGroot's Spire arborvitae, but I have to respect its toughness and tenacity. When gale force winds toppled a couple of purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and sent a top-heavy cucumber-leaf sunflower (Helianthus debilis subsp. cucumerifolius) toppling to earth, the Bluebird swayed and bent a little, but ultimately stayed upright (though perhaps looking a bit more...sinuous than before).

I can't wait to see what the flowers will look like! :-)

PS - If you don't want to miss the flowers either, sign up for a free email subscription and you'll get all the updates on Bluebird and everything else in the Garden of Aaron straight to your inbox!

How Hot Is It?

This aster has started flowering four months ahead of when it is "supposed" to bloom.

A comedian might say, "It's so hot that the catfish are already fried when you catch them."

But here in the Garden of Aaron, I'd put it this way:

It's so hot that Aster oblongifolius "October Skies" -- which every source I've seen says is supposed to start blooming in September or October -- started blooming about a week and a half ago ... in late May!

What's up with that?!

It has been kind of hot and very dry lately. Technically we received about 2.5 inches of rain in May, but that's what fell at the airport mostly in a two-day deluge. I don't think we received nearly that much here (though lacking a rain gauge, I can't say for sure). And temperatures have been running about 10 degrees above normal - in the high 80s to near 90 most of the past few weeks.

This is my first year growing October Skies aster, so I've no idea if this is normal behavior when October Skies is grown in the Southeast (the sources I've consulted describe aster behavior in New York City and Delaware).

Will October Skies flower from now until frost (which would be awesome) or will it poop out in the mid-summer heat? Stay tuned to find out!