If you live in the country, you might have noticed a small daisy-like flower in bloom on the side of the road at this time of the year. The daisy-like flowers, half an inch to one across, cover the plant with white, blue or purple flowers. These native wildflowers are grown at many nurseries for fall color and will grow well in your perennial garden.

This wildflower will thrive from Northern New England to Georgia but only grows wild in New England. Ancient Greeks called asters "stars" and legends say that Astraea, goddess of the sky, wept when she saw that there were no stars on earth, and asters sprouted where her tears fell. This Greek goddess must have loved looking at New England, as she graced us with millions of these plants. They are everywhere you look as you travel in New England.

The flowers begin to open in early September and last well into October, surviving cold nights and frost. The flower is daisy shaped and the petals form like the spokes of a wheel, with a dense button-like center that is traditionally yellow in color. New hybrids come in violet, lavender, pink, ruby-red as well as the common white, blue and purple. The same plant can have single or double flowers on the same plant, making them very showy. In the wild, asters will grow 6 inches to several feet tall and spread just as much. These fall-flowering New England asters grow along the side of the road in front of my house. I mow the grass there but they still bloom at the height of 3 inches tall, a great weed.

Asters grow best in full sun but will tolerate a bit of shade. The plants prefer a well-drained soil, rich in organic matter like pine needles and rotted leaves. If you can keep the area well watered during the heat of summer, your plants will grow and spread quickly but they will also tolerate a dry soil and just produce smaller plants. If you find Asters growing on the side of the road, fertilize them with a regular lawn fertilizer in the spring to create a real show of flowers in the fall, in the perennial garden.

Use compost, animal manure or a balanced fertilizer to feed asters. Apply it in the spring to help build a bigger plant for the fall. Because the plants can get quite large, I recommend that you pinch them in early July like your mums, tall-growing sedum and Montauk daisies to control the size of the plant. If your  fall asters grow along the side of the road like mine do, do not mow them when the plants are in bloom, but when the plants turn brown, mow them down with your lawn mower as this will spread the seed to make more plants for next year.

This fall-flowering perennial is a wonderful plant to attract bees and butterflies to your garden, as they are rich in pollen for food for these insects. This fall aster will make a great cut flower for your home and will last for 2 weeks or more in a vase of water. Use them in perennial gardens, wildflower gardens, woodland gardens, in a mixed border.

Plant in the back of the garden as they will get tall and you may have to stake the plants or you cut back in early July to control the height of the plants. At this time of the year, plant with mums, sedum, flowering cabbage and flowering kale.

When you clean the garden in the fall and the plant has turned brown, shake the plant on the ground to spread the seeds for next year. This plant will make a great filler plant for your flowerbeds and wildflower or meadow gardens. If you started with hybrid plants, they will stay true to color and form. The new seed-grown plants will look different due to pollination from the wild or native varieties growing along the side of the road, but still very nice. If you clean the garden late in the fall, many small birds like finches and chickadees will feed on the seeds produced on the plant. Enjoy!

Just because the season has changed, it does not mean "pack it up and go inside." Fall is a wonderful time to get back into the garden and finish your planting. During the heat of this summer, especially this year, the temperatures made planting almost impossible-and, besides, summer is the time to enjoy your spring planting and the family. Now the kids are back to school, vacation time is over for most of us and it's time to do what you enjoy again; for many of us that is working in the garden. Right now, the soil is still warm and when you plant new shrubs and trees they will get established faster than when planted in the early spring when the ground is wet and cold.

Fall planting does have many advantages--including the price of the plant material, as many of the nurseries and garden centers are having sales on their plants. Here is what I want you to look for when planting in the fall of the year. First, look over the plant material and check the quality of the plants on sale. If the plants look good, the root ball is nice and firm; the root ball has a good covering of burlap on it or is in a container that is not damaged, you're on the right track to continue looking around. Look at the foliage of the plant--is it green and healthy looking? Look at the condition of the branches--do they look good or are there many broken or dead branches on the plant?

Many times fall sales are caused by bad weather during the prime season, leaving plant material that did not sell when it was at its best, due to the weather. For example, most flowering plants sell when they are in bloom; if the weather was bad when they were in bloom, many people don't shop for plants at that time. The plant finishes flowering and people lose interest until next year when they see them flowering again and the weather is good for planting. The plant is still perfectly good but because you do not see the flowers, you lose interest in the plant and it sits in the nursery. The smart nursery keeps the plants looking good and cares for them properly---and in the fall, the smart gardener takes advantage of the bad weather during the spring and purchases that plant on sale. Look at the nursery itself and how it has been kept up during the summer months; if the place is clean and well-kept it is a signal that the plant material was well kept also. Now is the time for you to act and save money on plant material you would like in your yard, and when spring arrives next year your flowering plants are already planted and ready to flower no matter what the weather is.

If you're looking at trees for your home for shade or color--even fruit trees--fall is a great time also. Follow the same rules I just gave you but add one more thing to look at, and that is the trunk of the tree. Make sure there are no major scrapes on the trunk or missing bark. Small nicks and scrapes are not a problem and in just a year or two they will disappear. Grab the trunk of the tree and move it around to make sure it is firmly attached to the root ball--if it moves like a straw in a glass of water, leave it there, as the plant could have root damage that cannot be repaired.

Look at the foliage on the tree, how does it look? Make sure the branches look good with little to no breakage. Now, with your thumbnail, scrape a small scratch near the tip of some of those branches to make sure that there is still green under the bark; if you see green the branch is healthy, if brown there is a problem, So walk away. Large trees should have a wire basket around them unless they are potted. When you plant that tree ,leave the wire basket on the root ball; it will rust away in just a few years and the spacing of the wire will not affect the roots that will develop in the future. AGAIN--keep the wire basket on the root ball! The one thing that must be removed is any rope that is wrapped around the trunk of the tree, especially if it is plastic. Plastic rope will not rot in the ground and can create a girdling effect on the trunk and prevent growth from developing properly. What will happen is that as the trunk begins to grow the rope stays in position, while the wood fibers grow around it but are restricted. The top will grow and get bigger until a good wind or snow storm comes and then the girdled area that is the weak point on the plant will break--and you lose your tree. One more thing--any tree over six feet tall MUST be staked to the ground in the fall to hold the plant firmly in the ground for a year so the roots can form properly!

If you're planting evergreens in the fall, especially broadleaf evergreens like holly, boxwood, rhododendrons, azaleas, etc. , I would treat the foliage with an anti-desiccant spray such as Wilt-Pruf or Wilt-Stop around Thanksgiving to protect the foliage from wind damage and dehydration. Spray the underside of the foliage first and do a good job and get every underside of every leaf covered, as that is where the moisture escapes from the plant. Then do the top of the leaf; it's a small investment with a real positive effect on the plant, especially if we have a winter with little snow cover, lots of sunshine, wind, and little rainfall. An investment of less than $2.00 per plant can save a $50.00 plant from a tough winter. I would recommend that all broadleaf evergreens be treated--even those planted in the spring--for the first year in your garden. Be safe, not sorry in the spring.

I don't recommend planting roses in the fall of the year. I do recommend that you mulch all roses after Thanksgiving with bark mulch or straw--not any earlier, or mice will move into the mound of protection and eat your plant during the winter. If you live in New England, mulch and use Wilt-Pruf or Wilt-Stop especially if rose plants are less than a year old. Not every winter will be like last year with mild temperatures. If you have potted roses, put them in your garage or tool shed for the winter out of the weather when they lose all their foliage--or around Thanksgiving. No heated buildings, and water well before putting the plant away for the winter.

All deciduous plants--plants that lose their foliage during the winter months--can be planted in the fall with great success and need no special protection during the winter except for a good layer of bark mulch or compost around the base of the plant. This mulch helps to keep the heat in the ground longer, giving the plant extra time to develop a god root system and prevents the ground from freezing and thawing during the winter hurting the new roots.

If you're planting hydrangeas this fall, I would recommend that you remove all the flowers from the plant by Thanksgiving to prevent heavy wet snow from damaging the plant with the weight of the snow on the flowers and breaking the branches of the plant.

This fall, get back into your garden and get a jump on next spring's planting. Fall is for planting and planning the garden to enjoy for next year. Enjoy!

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