Perennial asters at their summer cottage
Asters grow on almost every site. Every year, flower growers sow them for seedlings or immediately on a flower bed, looking for interesting and unpretentious varieties in stores. After all, I want the flowers to be beautiful, and did not require much time. So why not combine these two concepts and land on flowerbed perennial asters? Someone who will definitely not take a lot of time: once planted - and for many years you do not need to dig beds in a flower garden and transplant every year. Moreover, in their appearance, such perennials are not inferior in beauty to annual asters. The only thing is that their inflorescences are usually small, but there are a lot of them and they come in very different colors.
Among gardeners who are fond of perennial asters, their second name is widespread - "hellebore" for their high resistance to autumn frosts. Such asters often stand green and bloom until the snow, and even after a slight frost, the buds open and flowering continues.
What are perennial asters?
All perennial asters grow in the form of an erect, rather tough shoot. Many lateral branches are formed on it, due to which soon a dense bush is obtained from 3-4 such lush shoots. Unlike annuals, this species has small, hard leaves, abundantly covering the branches. As for flowering, it is simply gorgeous and long-lasting, and small inflorescences have a yellow center and look like chamomile.
There are three groups perennial asters:
- new belgian aster;
- New England aster;
- shrub aster.
Regardless of belonging to a particular species, all perennial asters need to be transplanted every 4-5 years, since during this time they grow a lot.
Aster new belgian
It is characterized by strong growth. Rhizomes of bushes are widely distributed over the soil. Bushes rarely grow more than 1.5 m, twigs are covered with smooth, shiny and elongated leaves.
The species is late flowering, but some varieties can bloom as early as mid-summer. The varietal color has a wide range, the size of the inflorescences with a yellow center depends on the specific variety. There are a lot of flowers on the bush and they last until frost.
It should be taken into account that this species has a low resistance to powdery mildew.
Popular varieties: Amethyst, Royal Blue, Sunset.
Astra New England
Has lighter small leaves with hard pubescence, grows tall, sometimes up to 2 m, bush with smooth shoots branching in the upper part. The lower part of the branches is lignified by autumn. Blooms in late summer. The inflorescences are large enough, up to 4 cm in diameter, semi-double, the middle is yellow or dirty red.
The species is resistant to powdery mildew.
Popular varieties: Dr. Ekener, Braumen, Bars Pink.
Shrub aster
It differs from other perennials in its compact size, the average height of the bush is about 50 cm, although there are both mini-specimens with a height of only 20 cm and higher ones - up to 80 cm.The bush is dense and lush, with many side shoots and dark green leaves ...
Flowering occurs in early autumn, inflorescences are small, colored in different shades of red and blue, some varieties are white.
Popular types: Niobe, Diana, Venus.