A guide on how to grow and care for Aster flowers

Without been told Aster flowers (Aster spp.) really add color to the autumn landscape while offering beauty with little work when caring for the flowers. If you actually want to grow asters, it often blooms in late summer and fall, although the Alpine aster offers blooms in spring. The truth is that learning how to grow Aster is easy and rewarding when the star shaped flowers bloom in the landscape.

The different types of Asters

This particular flower can reach up 3 to 4 feet or can be compact and mounding as with the Alpine type. There are 600 or more varieties of Aster that exist. You can pair Asters in the natural garden with coneflowers and goldenrod for a striking display. The caring for Asters flower can include staking and/or pruning taller types for a bushier and more compact plant.

Steps on how to grow Asters flower

Like I said earlier growing Asters is a simple garden chore. The Asters flowers can be started from seed in spring, but they are most often purchased as a potted plant. Make sure you plant into a full sun to part sun location in loamy, well-draining soil. Make sure you keep new plantings moist and also continue watering until blooms cease. The appropriate care of this plant includes watering at the base and not splashing the foliage. Don’t forget that getting water or fertilizer on the leaves can encourage powdery mildew and other fungal diseases. Also organic mulch can hold in moisture and supply nutrients as it breaks down. You can apply within a few inches of aster stems, but not against them. You can fertilize growing Asters with a balanced plant food about once a month. Asters flowers need little in the way of maintenance. And again the care of Asters flowers may include deadheading for more blooms and occasionally includes controlling powdery mildew. This particular disease is most easily prevented by autumn or spring division of aster flowers, with the middle clump removed and discarded. And again powdery mildew can also be controlled with insecticidal sprays and soaps, if started early and regularly applied during the growing season.

Furthermore, powdery mildew usually does no lasting damage to Aster flowers, although should be controlled for aesthetic purposes. Also spraying may deter the small, gray lace bug, which at times feeds on the succulent growth of growing Asters. You can include a plot of Aster flowers in the garden for fall color and beauty. You can also plant shorter types to accompany fall blooming mums. And again this hardy perennial will return for years of autumn color.