Mums Aren't the Only Flower for Fall: Meet the Aster

Everyone reaches for a mum in September — but if you want fall color that doesn’t immediately look like fall decorating, the aster is one of the best plants almost nobody thinks to buy.

We grow a lot of mums. They’re popular for a reason: colorful, heavy-flowering, and nothing quite says fall like a big mum on the front porch. But they aren’t your only option. One of our favorites that starts showing up in garden centers in September is the aster.

Asters have a completely different look from mums. Instead of a few very large flowers, an aster can be covered with hundreds of smaller blooms. Purple and blue are the colors most associated with them, but you’ll also find pinks and other shades. Put a purple aster next to an ornamental grass, a mum, or a pumpkin and it adds a completely different texture. And unlike your pumpkin, the aster can go in the ground and come back next year.

We grow the Henry series, which has double flowers. The double bloom gives them a fuller, more premium look than a traditional single-flowered aster.

• ✓ Henry I Blue — stays around 10–16 inches tall, masses of roughly 1½-inch double flowers, hardy in Zones 3a–8b (plenty hardy for central Indiana). Ball also lists it as attractive to bees.
• ✓ Henry I Pink — same compact habit and double flowers; listed as attracting both bees and butterflies.

We like the doubles because they’re extremely showy when they’re covered in flowers.

I wouldn’t say a double aster is better than a single — they’re just different. Traditional single asters have the familiar daisy-like flower with an open center. There’s something really natural about them, and that exposed center makes the flowers easy for pollinators to work.

And pollinators are exactly why asters matter so much in fall. By September, a lot of the plants that fed bees and butterflies earlier in the summer are slowing down. Asters are just getting started — which makes them one of the most valuable things you can add to a pollinator garden this time of year.

If you buy an aster for your porch this fall, don’t automatically toss it when you’re done decorating. Plant it. Give it a sunny spot with decent drainage and keep it watered while the roots establish. Fall is actually a good time to establish hardy perennials, because the soil stays warm even as the air cools. The earlier in fall you get it in the ground, the more root time it has before winter — and next year it becomes part of the landscape.

Our asters should begin arriving at garden centers in September. We’re not trying to rush you into fall — it’s still August and there’s plenty of summer left. But when the mums start showing up over the next few weeks, look around for the asters too. They’re one of the best fall plants that doesn’t get nearly enough attention.

Reference: Ball Seed variety information · Purdue University Extension · Schlegel Greenhouse production notes