081026 - Heirloom Asters

Here are several photographs of the asters we had in the gardens this year.

Before this spring, I had never forced seedlings inside and had great success with these. I placed some soil in the bottom of a plastic cheese container with a clear lid, sprinkled seeds over the soil, splashed some water into the container, sealed the lid, and set the container on a table in the dining room, which gets great afternoon light.

Within a week, I had dozens of seedlings. I let them grow to half an inch, then transferred them into six packs in the gardens.

Unfortunately, during our cold and foggy summer, most died.

The bottom three photographs show rare heirloom asters I purchased online. They grew to about a foot tall, and the flowers were about the size of quarters. I preferred these over the other asters you see in these photographs. Those were very squat and had stringy-looking flowers that didn't last long.

I'm going to grow more of the heirlooms next year and start them indoors a little later in the year, so that they can take advantage of our long Indian summer.