White Wood Asters

You can see White Wood Asters growing all over the place, particularly where lawns meets woods. Individually, these are not a very stunning flower, but en mass they can be very attractive. The picture below shows them growing along the edge of my driveway. I didn't plant them. They were a byproduct of my efforts to reduce brushy growth that might scratch our cars, and the fact that not much else is well adapted to dry, shady conditions.

At Eklund Garden you are greeted with a line of asters as soon as you open the gate. I assume the lack of asters on the other side of the gate is due to deer browsing (we often see deer on the outside of the gate...it seems to be a route they follow).

And there are plenty blooming where the house was once located. These all came on their own. I did actually transplant some up above and now am kicking myself for wasting my time. This is one you just don't need to transplant. It will come all on its own! Note that White Wood Aster is extremely tolerant and can withstand very dry, shady areas. The leaves can be a little rough and weedy looking, so it makes a good border for natural areas.

"Garden in the Woods" Visit

Recently I had the pleasure of visiting the largest native species garden that I know of in the region: "The Garden in the Woods" by the New England Wildflower Society in Framingham, Mass. (just west of Boston). It was much larger than I expected. The board below is a neat idea: Removable picture cards of each plant are posted when the plant is in bloom.

Here's an invasive plant jail, with various species of invasives behind bars. Brilliant.

This is a floating island. It looks like rock but the thing was moving through the water a bit from the breeze. You can see some pitcher plants on it. This might be an interesting thing to do in the vernal pool down below, because only the center gets any real sun.

They had some little white 'tents' protecting caterpillars. This one I believe is a cecropia moth, which I just read has been in decline due to parasitism from an organism that was brought in to parasitize gypsy moths. For more pictures see here.