Northeast Gardening: Garden trends, 1 by sempervirens

sempervirens wrote:
Thank you for the welcome and compliments.

Robindog, I can never have too many asters ! (except for an impulse buy (mistake) of a cultivar called Fanny that no insect goes near because the flower petals are so dense they can't get to the center).
The trick is to plant them with naive grasses ( for me that's little bluestem my absolute favorite, switch grass and indian grass, and other large plants like Baptisia (false indigo), amsonia (bluestar), ironweed and joe-pye-weed.

The grass /aster combination has the advantage of the grass being a host plant for skippers who then cover the asters in pursuit of nectar in the fall.
The asters are showing in the back left of the photo with NY ironweed, switch grass, joe-pye weed and lots of brown-eyed susans. The vines in the distance are native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens.

Even in a small space these giants can look well with each other. It's just a matter of trial and error (lots of error), which is the fun part for us gardeners.
At first I was at a complete loss at placing the larger plants but the they lean on and compliment each other, so they do all the design work.
The real payoff is the increased amount of insects, butterflies and birds that visit.
The seed heads and the fall colors are an added plus.