Hi all,

While I'm an experienced vegetable grower, I'm relatively new to flowers. My mom had tons that were always beautiful, and I helped with the beds and learned a decent amount by just being around flower gardening, but I've never been responsible for anything planted outdoors until recently...I bought my house about 3.5 years ago and the yard was a mess, so I'm just now getting the landscaping to a really finished point.

Anyway, so I planted some aster ("Stokesia Bluestone" to be specific..it's the "signature" variety from the nursery I buy most plants from) that is supposed to be fall blooming (late summer to late fall). The first plant went in last fall (the spring one died in shipment because of last spring's shipping delays), the second last spring. Both appear to be setting buds now. Is this normal? Will they set buds in spring that don't open for months? Or is climate weirding getting the best of them (we had a warm March and now a cool April)? I wouldn't be mad if they bloomed at the "wrong" time, I suppose, I just want to know what to expect. IMO, they seem really healthy otherwise (both were 6" tall or less when planted, now pushing knee-high, so they seem to be flourishing!).

I am used to them blooming from late June till Fall, could have to do with being in a warmer zone and you said you had a warm March.

Thanks Bob,

I got some info in the questions forum. Apparently this variety is more of a summer bloomer, and summer comes early to my front yard (intense, full sun from mid-August until about now...my grape hyacinth can send up blooms in JANUARY if it's even just slightly warmer than normal). Hopefully it's still a long-bloomer, as advertised, so I'll get good blooms through most of the "season." I do know it takes a while to open after setting buds since the bigger (second pic) one set buds last fall, but they never opened. They set in maybe mid-October (after a spring planting and a rough summer, weather-wise), but shriveled up rather than opening when we got a freeze in late November. Based on that experience, these will probably take a few weeks to a month, at least, to open.

Edit to brag: the "rough summer" included an early May freeze; IIRC, 28 consecutive days with highs above 90 degrees in July; and a "flash" drought lasting about 5-6 weeks that was broken by INSANE downpouring thunderstorms (I was actually heading out of town to go spend a few days in the mountains when the first round arrived, had to pull off the highway and wait it out, and the car was rocking from the winds while parked in a McD's parking lot!) that dropped something like 4" of rain in 3 days. And then we had a single-day 5" of rain in September. And the plant looks like that after all of that. If I do say so myself, I did a good job of keeping it alive! I try to pick "easy" things, but nothing is "easy" in conditions like that!