Last year, our California asters grew. And grew. And grew. By flowering time, the plants were about six feet tall. Too hard to appreciate the flowers at that height without a ladder, but the plants had a solution: as the season progressed, they drooped. We couldn’t cut them because we wanted the seeds as a food source for birds. Messy.
Six foot tall asters were too dominant for the native meadow, so we decided to try a bit of maintenance and limit their height. I wanted them to come in around three feet, but didn’t want to block flowering.
The experiment started at the beginning of the second week of July. The plants were trimmed to a height of two feet above the ground, the clippings chopped up and strewn on the ground of the meadow.
Another set of plants were trimmed about the first week of August, again at a height of two feet above the ground, same treatment for the clippings.
The first plants, trimmed in July, went into full bloom around September 24th, at an average height of 50 inches.
The others topped out at 36″ – 40″. The taller plant had a few sparse blooms. The three foot tall plant had very few buds and no flowers, as of October 7th.
So, I managed to get my desired height, but at the expense of flowers. The taller plants are still a huge improvement over last year, sitting right around eye level. As before, the plant is covered in butterflies (four species, so far) – but now they’re at eye level and much easier to photograph.
This plant is native to Sacramento, where it spreads by stolons and apparently seeds. So, although it’s a California native it’s a potentially invasive one. We’ve found that it’s easy to rip out where it’s not wanted, and by timely pruning its size can be managed. Considering its importance to butterflies, I’d say it’s worth growing in a native border or meadow.
As an aside, the name I gave above for the plant is no longer botanically correct. It was too easy to spell, apparently. The plant got a complete name change: Latin and common names are now different. The plant is still sold by the name above, unless you’re at a CNPS plant sale, where it goes under the new and improved moniker of Pacific Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense). It has a couple of subspecies, although I don’t know which flavor of the plant I’ve got.
Mentally filing away for future reference… eagerly awaiting for ours to bloom! (First year native garden!)
Just watch for butterflies – they love the flowers. These things tend to spread all over the garden, but at least they’re fairly easy to pull out where you don’t want them.