Have you noticed how few flowers are blue? Purple yes, but true blue is hard to find. In spring we have small bulbs like muscari and hyacinth; summer brings delphiniums and bluebells. And in the fall we have beautiful asters and one of my favorites, eupatorium Wayside.
Aster Monch and Eupatorium Wayside
I used to bike all around town as a kid, picking bouquets of deep purple wild asters, goldenrod and Queen Anne’s Lace and I still love asters. Asters range from white to light blue, to pink to deep purple, and I’ve planted several varieties bred for shape and color. Several are planted by the Sweet Williams and didn’t do well this summer due to weeds that nearly choked them out. The other aster, Monch, is in a different section. It’s 2 years old but barely bloomed last year.
Aster Monch is medium blue – it looks more purple in my photo than in person – and blooms for about 5 weeks. It’s a nice height and spread, easy to fit in between other plants. This spring my aster Monch plant looked to have plenty of room but now this fall it is growing right into a daylily and my eupatorium.
Blues Match – Aster Monch and Eupatorium Wayside
Eupatorium has wrinkled leaves that are dark with a bit of gray and the plant itself is about 2 feet tall. It reseeded itself into a couple small plants besides the main one. Variety Wayside looks just like a taller ageratum with fuzzy blue flower heads.
Some of my phlox have a few late blossoms. (I did a terrible job deadheading this year – the mosquitoes were horrific.) The deep rose pink look so good against the soft fuzzy blue!
Aster, Eupatorium and Late Phlox
This spring I moved our floppy and too-large sedum behind the fence. It is welcome to spread all over back there; maybe it can keep the weeds and grass down and even bloom a bit! In fact it is just behind the volunteer eupatorium and the two look good together. The sedum is not a pretty color, sort of a rusty old brick, but it looks good contrasting with the richer blue.
Fall Sedum and Blue Eupatorium
Every year I look forward to my blue show with the eupatorium and this year am so glad to welcome aster Monch to the party!
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