Don't know if you read New York Mayor Bloomberg's remarks at Brooke Astor's funeral a few weeks ago, but I was struck by the cleverness and on-point quality of what he said:
And within a few weeks, in parks and gardens across our city, fittingly enough the asters will be in bloom. They're the last flowers of the season, and they show us that often it's the fullness of time that brings out the best in nature-and in people as well. Their elegance-and that message-will remind us of Brooke.
Having been away for awhile, I returned over the weekend to a garden clearly on the downside of the season. It's still colorful and beautiful, especially in weather like this, but now is aster time, for sure. Blossoms on my 'Purple Dome' New England asters are coming alive, like blinking eyes, each day bringing forth more small purple blooms with golden centers.
The shrubs are truly domed, giving these plants a pleasing fat-mushroom shape that contrasts nicely with the short and tall alike that surround them. It's fun counting the open blossoms day by day, even more fun to remember the sight last summer of so many purple domes all around.
They're a great surprise, one of many this year. I shouldn't be surprised; the asters show up every year. But somehow I forget in my autumn gloom that this garden isn't finished just yet!
Not at all.
Asters aren't the very last flower to bloom in my garden. Still to come are some lovely camelias and monkshood, but Mayor Bloomberg was certainly correct when he spoke of the aster's elegance. There's something about these old-fashioned beauties that is simple, symmetrical, full-bodied and quietly colorful.
They make the downside of the summer gardening season go down a little easier.
