I would love to see your....asters

Funny!!!!!!!

Funny - i was just telling Thom in a Dmail : Living in an apartment complex means my plants are always on public view, and there are a couple of elderly ladies - one in particular - who love to come up to me while i am gardening to say things like, "That one looks like it's dying." or "What's the matter with this one?" which feels like someone telling you you have an ugly pet.

I have often thought, "O, if only you knew what goes through my mind when you say that while i have these clippers in my hand!"

I've gone through several times with one person who always seems to visit when the screaming orange Asiatic lilies are in bloom (along with so many other plants) and she stands there with arms crossed and tells me how much she hates orange.

I garden with a variety of sharp knives - short, long, serrated, etc. So tempting!

Amy, Asters can get mildew if they don't get sufficient air circulation. Might that be the case?

Sorry Victor, for the newbie-forum type question, but how would i know?
What would it look like?

Powdery Mildew looks just that - like white powder on the leaves. Is the plant out in the open where the air moves nicely through / around it?

definitely no white powder. more like the under and back side turning black and breaking off easily, though sometimes still with green at the ends. but i cut off those parts long ago, leaving the plant a little lopsided. (i guess i did a half-astered job...)

amy
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Ha ha - good one. Some fungal diseases cause blackening also so it could still be that.

Sounds like black-spot to me.

Yes it does. I just wasn't sure if Asters commonly get that.

um - do echinacea get that?

Some do. Never noticed any on mine. Someone on DG had a lot of it on Goldsturm.

I don't think they commonly do, it may be the plants are weakened by a specific nutrient deficiency, (ie. Iron). I would try 'Safer' Neem oil as a general cure and use pure Sulfur on a test plant which is infected just to find out ...

BTW, my Amethysts are full of berries now...

the edges of the flower petals started turning black like they'd been dipped in ink. the leaves were discolored too - brown/reddish like spray paint from a distance. They wouldn't grow straight anymore, so i cut them back. The one i did 1st has recovered, but the other 2 are still not right - tiny flowers w/lots of space between petals (which at least aren't black anymore) and the leaves still look sprayed.

WC, I had berries on mine since August. Are you just getting them now?

No... it's not blackspot disease.

Mine started in September, ...they take so long to fill up. Even though I watered them every other day, the lack of rain didnt help either. I have them hooked up to a drip system with the butterfly bushes, Zinnias and Clematis, so I had to balance the watering time for them all.

They are pretty though. I have the white as well.

my, what an impressive picture of your berries that is, WC...

Thanks amethystsm, I'd like to see the white ones... I did'nt know they came in white!!

The white is Symphoricarpos albus.

- thanks
Asters just before twilight 2 days ago. Time exposure.