Bees want Asters in September
Asters provide a rich source of food as the summer wanes. They are wild chrysanthemums so, if you have an indoor potted chrysanthemum to enjoy its flowers, when they have withered instead of putting it onto the compost heap (or worse – a bin) find a small corner (anywhere) and plant it. You may find it will become dormant over winter and want to live in the following spring. The mystery will be, is it going to be the same chrysanthemum or will it turn ‘wild’ like an aster? Recorded September 2021.
This year, 2024, the asters in my garden have simply not flowered until very late September. Bees were responding to the brief first fortnight of dry and sometimes very warm weather and coming out in numbers. Sadly, the end of this month has been very, very wet with localised flooding which has caused a lot of late nectar-rich flowers to disintegrate, the bees may or may not survive long enough to enjoy the asters.