Native plants for a Cape Cod garden

This amazingly prolific aster is everywhere in my yard, and that is not a bad thing as it was also one of the favorite feed plants of a resident woodchuck. The young plants were simply decimated down to the soil, while the taller plants are now mostly devoid of their big leaves. Many stems were broken as the animal tried to reach the leaves at higher elevations. The plant ranges anywhere from half a foot to 4 feet in my garden, depending on light conditions. The plant seems to thrive in pretty much any spot, though, and the seedlings of spring are in some cases producing flowers already. In a few weeks the flowers will give way to seed that will be carried by the wind. I should have many more common blue wood asters come next spring (hint: let me know and I will reserve plants for you). This plant has many branches with a multitude of pale blue flowers that are extremely showy.

There are many cultivars and color variations of this particular species of aster. When you go to garden centers you will often find these plants under the name Michaelmas daisies. Mind you, these “daisies” don’t look anything like the plant of origin. And here’s another trivia (or trivial?) item: At one point in time, New York State, where this plant is common, was known as New Belgium, and therefore the plant has novi-belgii in its moniker. The smooth leaves differentiate the species from new england aster. The flowers are not as good for cutting as those of the new england asters, as they are decidedly less showy and smaller, but they provide excellent color in the late summer and fall garden. They prefer sun but they will propagate on rhizomes in the shade garden as well – there they are MUCH taller (7 to 8 feet in my woodland garden) and the flowers are packed less densely together.

This aster does not need a lot of care and can be grown easily in average soil. Unlike some of the woodland asters, it prefers sunny conditions. The plant can get rather tall (up to 6 feet tall) and lanky, and when the flowers appear it may require staking. Another way to get bushier shorter plants is to pinch back the stems any time before mid-July. This is a good cutting flower to bring indoors. This aster self-seeds easily and will also send out long rhizomes which will bring new plants in unexpected places. The new england asters in my yard have also fallen prey to the woodchuck, and the only one remaining was perched right against the house.

This aster has showy violet-blue flowers with golden centers. The plant is relatively easy to grow and control in many different soil and light conditions, but it does best in full sun and somewhat sandy soil. The foliage is very green and smooth (it is less hairy and rough than other species of aster)

This plant can reach 2 to 5 feet in height and displays a plateau (flat topped) of creamy white flowers when in bloom. The flowers are relatively long-lived from August through October. The florets of the flower heads turn a creamy white color after the bloom period. The plant has no basal leaves but there are alternate lanceolate leaves along the stem. Flat topped aster reproduces mainly by seed, although small colonies can grow from the rhizomes as well.

Bigleaf aster is named after the large heart shaped leaves. These leaves are up 8 inches long and 6 inches wide, on long stems. They become progressively smaller up the main stem; leaves at the top of the plant have little or no leaf stem. All leaves are coarsely toothed; attachment is alternate. You should be aware that not all plants will flower, so make sure you can be happy with a leafy plant. It is actually a great seasonal groundcover. The flowers of Eurybia macrophylla are quite irregular – the flowers actually look messy. They consist of 9 to 20 pale blue to violet petals spaced around a yellow center. As you can tell from the picture, the center turns reddish brown later in the fall.

Bigleaf aster actually needs some amount of light for flowering and subsequent seed production, which can be quite prolific. In dense forest you may just see the leaves, and the flowering stems are typically not present. In those habitats the plant forms colonies from the rhizomes. In a sense, this plant keeps its options open – it can thrive in deep shade, and it can suddenly take advantage of changes (like a tree falling and creating a clearing that brings more light to the forest floor) and adapt its reproductive ways.

Eurybia macrophylla is visited by butterflies. There are some culinary uses as the young leaves may be cooked and eaten. Macrophylla means large leaf in Greek and some other uses come to mind – it is not called lumberjack toilet paper for nothing…