Beginner Gardening: Need Advice: Getting a Cornflower Aster to bloom (Stokesia), 1 by jep2075

jep2075 wrote:
Hi fellow gardeners!

Just this early evening while I was pruning and cleaning my garden, I noticed that 3 Cornflower Asters I planted the end of May/June ended up completely covered up by overgrown Verbena and Dahlias, leaving them absolutely no sun! Luckily I had stuck the flower label in the ground at planting time, otherwise I would have never remembered what the heck it was. The plants seemed pretty healthy considering, but only grew a few inches and no signs of blooms. I decided to dig up the 3 small plants and transplant them to a nice large container with fresh potting soil and a bit of manure. I gave them a nice nutrient rich growing medium in hopes that this will kick-start them. I can also monitor how much sun it gets by moving it. They are called Stokesia Purple Parasol with blue/magenta beautiful flowers. I live in zone 6a, so I am hoping that I can get it to bloom before our first frost sets in. Any advice on types of fertilizer I can use to help the process. Unfortunately I don't know much about Asters so I need some advice. Thank you in advance for all your help!! The attached photo is one from the web just as a reference and not mine.