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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-138
New England Aster
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae
New England Aster is a tall fall-blooming perennial covered in purple-pink daisy flowers from August into October, a key late nectar source for migrating monarchs and native bees. It needs consistently moist, distinctly acidic soil below pH 6.8 and has no rated drought tolerance, conditions that match its native range from Quebec and Maine south to South Carolina and west to the eastern Great Plains. On dry, alkaline ground it needs steady irrigation and soil acidification to survive - a close relative, the aromatic aster, gives the same fall nectar show on calcareous, low-water ground for none of that input.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–8
- Soil
- Sand · Silt · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6.8–6.8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 3–6 ft
- Mature spread
- 12–36 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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Alsike Clover
Trifolium hybridum
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Amaranth Greens
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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