Wow! I wasn't expecting these first year perennials to bloom this year! I was out and about dead-heading and whatnot and sure enough it looks like little buds beginning to form! The other to just start are first year Anise Hyssop. Also now that I've yanked a few plants, one of the Nicandra finally got it's first bloom too. Moss Rose seems a little late this year but they just started blooming today and Profusion Zinna are right behind as are the Cosmic Orange Cosmo's....both also late coming. My Wee Bee Little pumpkins got their first blooms today too! I've gotta chalk up these flowering delays with this heat wave we've been in, but finally by Thursday it's supposed to be back down into the 80's...much more comfortable; for them and for me LOL! Vera

Image by: wintersown Perennial New England Asters have small one inch ray flowers in the white, pink and lavender to purple range. The seeds are dispersed by the "fluff and fly" method, as they mature they grow their own parasols to be carried off with the wind to a new location far from the parent plant. The left seed tuft in the photo clearly shows where the seeds are located. On a windy day this tuft would finish dispersing in a few short hours. Seed collection is easy....simply grasp the the fluff with your fingers and remove it from the plant. The seeds are located at the very base of the fluff held in a tight cluster. They are quite small, light to medium brown, the width of a fine needle and about a 1/8" long. Because there is so much chaff with these aster seeds they are often traded as seeds and chaff mixed together. Sowing instructions should mention patting both seeds and chaff together onto the soil surface.

Yes, Amphiachyris dracunculoides (Prairie Broomweed), thanks!!!

It's a Panicled Aster, Symphyotrichum lanceolatum.