New England Asters - here with Red Admiral
Butterfly magnet
Pearl Crescent
Sulphur
Monarch
Buckeye
This is yesterday - 5 Monarchs
Couple of Monarchs enjoying a pink aster.
Two more.
If observed closely, there are 8 Monarchs in this pic. A couple times I counted 10 Monarchs on one Aster yesterday afternoon. Suphurs, Buckeyes, Skippers, Red Admirals, wasps, and various bees were noted yesteray on the asters as well, but the Monarchs stole the show.
Close up Monarch.
2 moths
The butterfly magnet Asters in front of Goldenrods.
Aster close up.
Jmorth,
WOW ....................those are awesome ............. they are even our High School colors .......well close enough ......... ( purple and gold) .....
I wonder how they would stand up to our Texas heat??
I would love to have some of those in my garden ..........
awesome pics also .......... now one of the old pros broke out some real group photo !!
these are what I have for purple color........ they are Blue Princess Verbena ....... haven't seen much action on them though.........kind of puny as well
I went with this one because I knew that it could take the Texas full sun .........but if that beauty could take it I am definately gonna try and get some of those beauties !!
close up of Blue Princess
Ok, I'm sold on the New England Asters!!
Very nice flutterbyes Jmorth and James!!
jataylor, small world...my high school colors were purple and gold too.
cool .............. I looked these up in plant files .........it says they will do ok in my zone ..... a funny thing is that where the blue princess is in my bf garden ....... the plan calls for these flowers!! .........it calls them purple domes though ....... it says they are fall bloomers ......... have yours bloomed any this summer or have they just started?
I like them and am going to see if i can find some and find another olace in the bed to plant them..
james t
Not only are Asters a butterfly magnet for supplying nectar, they are also host plants for Gorgone & Silvery Checkerspot, American Painted Lady, Long-tailed Skipper, Painted Lady, and Pearl Crescents. If I'm wrong, please someone correct me so I can update my diary.
Your photos are a fall inspiration!
Thanks Cordeledawg and Indy lily.
james, the New Eng Asters have had intermittent blooms since July but they were occasional at best...The plant is completely covered in blooms as pictured this month.
J
Amazing!!! Going to add Aster to the "need to have" for butterfly/hummer patch!!
Wow J, that Aster is huge and beautiful! Look at all those bfs that like it!
Here in Texas the Purple Fall Aster, Symphyotricum oblongifolium does the same job, they are great too check it out.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/76317
Josephine.
I have one Aster Novae-Angliae 'Purple Dome' and I have two more coming in a couple of weeks. Is this the same plant that is here? It seems like the Aster I have has smaller blooms. Also, I had no idea that Golden Rod grew to that height. I may try my hand at one or two in Spring.
Thanks for sharing,
Chuck
Ooh. I want these soo bad. I have got to stop planting for this year though. Except for bulbs of course. I am definitely going to think about these in the spring. And James if they grow in your zone they should grow in mine, right? I am zone 7.
Also all the goldenrod I have been seeing is so beautiful. Another must have next year if it grows here. So many plants I have never seen or heard of before and now I have to have. I need to win the lottery though so I can afford them. lol.
Leslie
Chuck, the New England Asters pictured are wildflowers and are untamed as opposed to the asters normally available which have been bred for short stature., The ones pictured are around 5 ft in height and probably 4 ft across arising from multiple stems. To combat their tendancy to flop, one is contained in a quite large circular tomato cage, the other by twine and steel rebar. The third, unfettered, is intertwinned with and laying over a stand of blackberry lilies, perilla, and nicotiana.
Leslie, the goldenrod is, I believe, the tall goldenrod, Solidago altissima, another prairie wildflower which grows to 7 feet tall. Most goldenrods are but 3 or 4 ft tall.
Thanks for that info Jmorth. I did not realize you had to tie up the Asters like that. I have planted an aster I received from mail order, not sure which kind it "was", as it died pretty soon on getting into the ground. But the New England Asters are on my list for the spring. Are they a pain to keep up?
Also I am curious about the goldendrod. What kind of stalks do they grow on? And on your last picture is that some in the foreground, the long stalks with the thin leaves kind of curving over? The reason I ask is the lady across the street has a bunch of tall plants all around her house and I have never seen them do anything but stand there. They are not in sun however and I got a couple from her and planted them in my garden. I doubt very seriously they are goldenrod but they look similar to what is in the foreground of your pic. Just thought how lucky I would be if that is actually what they were. To me they have never been anything but talk spikes of leaves as they have never bloomed that I have seen but again are in shade at her house. She is in a rehab center now after a fall and we are taking care of her yard for her so I cannot ask her. Any help would be greatly appreciated here. Thanks
Leslie
lostintexas,
The asters weren't too troublesome; on one, the tomato cage was put over it brfore it grew much, the twine and rebar one took two enclosures as the initial one was too low.
The tall goldenrods have relatively thin stems dispite their height, probably no bigger than half an inch. The tall, thicker stalks in pics are from sunflowers self-seeded from an original Kong variety which is multiflowered and about 10 to 12 feet tall. The sunflowers have been there to provide shade to two Paw Paw trees. The Paw Paws, an understory tree, needed shaded the first two years of their planting.
Both the aster and the goldenrods are wildflowers up here. I got the orginal two asters from a local wildflower club group sale, the goldenrods just showed up one year.
Check out this Monarch caught by the lens in flight.
J
Ahhhhh -- i gotta me some asters!! awesome photos!!
Cool, jmorth...every now and then, good pictures just happen. : )
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tcs1366, I think jmorth should pull those asters up and send them to you and I. lol : ) Beautiful, aren't they?
~Lucy
This message was edited Oct 5, 2007 10:56 PM
Hi, jmorth--love your bountiful aster and golden rod picture series with all the butterflies!
Quite a popular stand of asters you have with the butterflies so your pics motivated me to go out and check my asters for visitors too, but I was disappointed. Not one butterfly on them.
I have one huge 'purple dome new england' aster and four 'new york'-- asters all purchased from Bluestone so maybe not true wild flower strains...it's hard for me to tell from Plant files what aster is what:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/76317/
as there seems to be a lot of double naming/posting there.
Anyway, the butterflies are still preferring my verbena bonarienses which is beginning to annoy me because I have all the other favorites (including golden rods too) that they seem to continually ignore!
Well, thanks for letting me vent a little! I lust after your butterfly convention! LOL Isn't butterfly gardening fun?! t.
Very pretty butterfly pics Jmorth! Now when are you going to send the Monarchs on their way through Texas? We have been waiting for them this season and so far only a few stragglers! LOL! Not wishing cold weather on you up there, just a little chill in the air to make them move on down.
Sheila....
i was sitting out drinking my coffee this morning watching them flutter about...
2 more days of 80's then it should finally start to cool down to 'normal' temps. I can't wait.
we are 20-25° above normals.
wow! absolutely gorgeous photos of the flowers and the butterflies! I have never grown asters but purple coneflowers do quite well here in Arkansas (almost too well!) and they attract butterflies, too, as you can see in the photo. Can someone tell me what kind of butterfly this is?
some type of swallow tail.
i'm looking around for a match.
http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/map?x=191&y=148&_fc=1
edited because i was incorrect on the swallowtail.
This message was edited Oct 8, 2007 10:26 AM
Thanks to all for the positive comments.
marsue, I couldn't agree more with you concerning the coneflower butterfly connection...the accompaning pic should illustrate that (Red Admirals Convention):
Thanks, tcs1366! Now I know what a black swallowtail looks like. :o) That photo was taken a couple of years ago at our previous home about 35 miles n.w. of here but I have seen some of the black swallowtails at our current home, too. At our previous home, I had an absolutely huge butterfly bush and there were butterflies and bees all over it in the blooming season. Unfortunately, the bush died for some unknown reason but the purple coneflowers were alive and well when we sold the place and still attracting butterflies. :o)
Wow Jack!
Ditto all positive comments! Beautiful asters and color combinations. Great pics, as usual!! I have the goldenrod too, and it is an awesome addition.. A great backdrop to all the purple you have there. Some of mine just 'appeared' too, lol!
One day I hope I can have all my plants as organized as you have. Looks like you have spent years of love on your garden!
Yep Sheila it looks like we will be seeing flock of Monarchs soon. Temps are starting to go to 80s for daytime.. finally!
tcs~ Love your butterfly pic!! ;-)
debnes
marsue --
i was incorrect on the type of swallowtail, it is not a "black" but a "spicebush"
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/94/
thanks debnes
Terese