Another aster is blooming – New England aster. But despite more asters and goldenrods putting on their show in our garden and along roadsides, I’m not saying the ‘F’ word yet…or the ‘A’ word. It’s still warm and it’s still summer (the beloved ‘S’ word), judging by both the calendar and that summer holidays are still a reality for children.
Asters now have a variety of Latin names. They used to be in the genus Aster, but alas enough differences were found to divide them up and give them some very long and hard to pronounce names. New England aster, previously called Aster novae-angliae is now Symphyotrichum novae-angliae. In case you need to find an aster, here are some other genus names that you could search by: Eurybia, Oclemena, Sericocarpus, Doellingeria, Ionactis, Solidago (yes, the genus for goldenrods), Canadanthus as well as Aster.
But as to what else is blooming or fruiting here at CWF’s Wildlife-friendly Demonstration garden, Virginia creeper is colourful and bountiful with its blue-purple fruit hanging from bright red stems amongst its deep glossy green leaves! Birds will make good use of these soon.
Sarah Coulber
Sarah is an Education Specialist at the Canadian Wildlife Federation. She writes about the benefits and ‘how-to’s’ of wildlife-friendly gardening, coordinates content for the Gardening for Wildlife web section, co-manages the wildlife-friendly demonstration gardens at CWF headquarters and assists Canadians looking to achieve similar results with their own properties.
