Boltonia

Boltonia

Fall is a wonderful time to savor the beauty of the natural world before the garden hibernates during winter. A great cutting garden offers stems for snipping from spring through the first frost. Call on boltonia to anchor the late summer and fall cut-flower collection. Additional late-season cutting flowers include sedum, goldenrod, purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, New England aster, perennial sunflower, and Japanese anemone. Add small twigs with colorful leaves for a texture surprise in your fall bouquet.Boltonia tolerates a wide range of soil types, including moderately dry ones. For best results, plant this perennial in full sun and well-drained soil with medium moisture. Plants grown in part shade and moist, rich soil tend to develop weak stems and need staking as they mature.

Boltonia

A robust bloomer, Boltonia asteroides - False Aster provides a bright white presence from late summer to the first frosts, a time when the predominant native flower color is yellow. Hundreds of aster-like blossoms on a single plant are an inch across and feature yellow centers surrounded by narrow white ray petals that sometimes are tinged pink to purple. Narrow gray-green leaves and sturdy stems add to the plant's visual appeal. False Aster prefers wet to medium soil conditions and grows best in full sun to partial shade. Profuse blooms can be expected in wetter soils and sunny sites, and the height can vary greatly from 3' to 5' depending on soil moisture.

Standing water is even tolerated for short periods so it's a great choice for Rain Gardens. It is rhizomatous by nature so will spread, but not aggressively.Many insects are attracted to this plant, including butterflies, long and short-tongued bees, wasps, flies, skippers, moths, and beetles. It has a wide native range, from zone 3 to 10.There are some great variety choices for Boltonia. ‘Snowbank’ is a compact plant growing only 3-4 feet tall and has more flowers than the straight species. A good choice for a pink selection would be ‘Pink Beauty’. Another good color choice would be the Jim Crockett false aster, which has lavender flowers with a yellow center. (Source:communityenvironment.unl.edu)