The humble aster is worth a second look.
September has arrived and with it, many flowering plants along the trail have dropped their petals and are concentrating their energies on producing seeds. But not the Frost Aster. This blizzard of small bright white flowers appears everywhere in clusters, blooming late and calling pollinators with delicious scented blooms that bring to mind vanilla butter cookies.
The frost aster gets her name, not from the fact that she continues to flower after a frost (which she does) but from the soft hairy covering of her stems that, if you look closely, make them appear to be painted with hoarfrost.
“While Asters On the Hill Their Everlasting fashions set And Covenant Gentians Frill!"
Emily Dickinson
Up close the plant reveals pleasing symmetries, its composite flower heads each like perfect little daisies with white rays and yellow disk flowers. Composites are unique in that their flowers are actually many flowers packed together. Look closer and you’ll see that each yellow disk flower is a perfect flower all to itself tightly packed in the center.
The frost aster doesn’t shout her presence, but offers a deceptively modest late floral display of intricate flowers within flowers – an everlasting fashion that will endure long into fall.
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