Overview

Raydon’s Favorite Aster

About asters Thoreau wrote, “How ever unexpected these later flowers! You thought that Nature had about wound up her affairs. You had seen what she could do this year, and had not noticed a few weeds by the roadside, or mistook them for the remains of summer flowers now hastening to their fall; you thought you knew every twig and leaf by the roadside; and nothing more was to be looked for there: and now to your surprise, the ditches are crowded with millions of little stars.”

Thoreau’s words from 1856 are elegant and appropriate. Asters are remarkable and surprising plants. After quietly gathering strength all season, they explode into bloom as most other plants are either fading or already dormant. I eagerly await the profusion of purple every Autumn. It is impossible for me to choose a favorite species or cultivar, but this month I am focusing on Aster oblongifolius “Raydon’s Favorite”.

Raydon’s Favorite aster is a star among a genus of stars. The cultivar opens late in the year with two-inch wide, rich purple flowers. The bright yellow center shines against the purple corona. The colorful flowers are tough. They withstand inclement weather and frost to give the honeybees their final drink of the season and the last great show to my garden.

Late Autumn in Chicago is cold. The temperature often dips below freezing and snowfall is possible. Raydon’s Favorite aster keeps going right up until a hard freeze. It is usually so persistent that after Thanksgiving dinner I brave the cold and barren outdoors to visit a patch of Raydon’s Favorite asters colorfully glowing against the tawny, end-of-the-season backdrop.

There are other plants that bloom or have sporadic blossoms late into the season. But in my garden nothing shines and revels from mid October through November like Raydon’s Favorite aster. Other asters, turtlehead, blue joe-pye weed, and sunflowers still have blossoms during this period, but their main show occurs earlier. A few perennials, like true autumn crocuses, colchicums, bottled gentian, gold-and-silver chrysanthemum, and Kamchatka bugbane, actually begin blooming in October; but none of those is as showy, hardy, or long lasting as Raydon’s Favorite aster.

This versatile plant is easy to grow and is appropriate for different designs and uses. On my roofdeck it is a specimen plant in a large pot. Along the east side of my okra patch, Raydon’s Favorite aster fits into a perennial border. In my raised meadow bed, it forms a show-stopping hedge. Originally the hedge was a single specimen, but over the past three years it has grown exponentially into a 6’ long, 2’ wide, 2’ high border that turns heads with thousands of purple blossoms.

Every temperate garden should have asters. Their carefree display is indispensable to the Autumn garden’s palette. Raydon’s Favorite aster is a special treat, celebrating both Halloween and Thanksgiving with grace and courage before fading to December’s relentless onslaught. The northern gardener’s penultimate hurrah, Raydon’s Favorite aster ushers out other late bloomers and welcomes the mysterious witch hazel.