Mistaken ID

When we first arrived at the Genuine Faux Farm, we had some grand plans as to how we would turn the somewhat barren landscape into something wonderful.  We had good soil, we had the desire and we had the energy to give it a good go.  And, among our earliest projects was an attempt to establish some nice, flowering bushes and perennial natives on the southwest borders of the property.

We put in several small lilacs (each no more than a foot tall) on the corner.  And, to top it off, we added some coneflowers and other natives that we hoped would add some color in front of the lilacs throughout the season.  Now, several years later, the area in front of the lilacs (now ten to fifteen feet tall) is some grasses and three plants that have flowered happily and faithfully every year after their first in this location.

We purchased a variety of native perennial forbs from Ion Exchange and used selected locations for each different kind of plant.  Two or three types of plants went out by the lilacs and we kept track of what we put where.

Or at least we thought we did.

Somehow we have perpetuated our own mythology that these plants are Silky Asters.  Is it possible that we got plants with the wrong tags?  I suppose that's possible.  But it is more likely that we simply just mixed things up, no matter how carefully we tried to keep track.  My hypothesis is that we planted Silky Asters out by the lilacs along with these plants.  These have continued to thrive, and the Silky Asters did not.

I always thought these plants did not really look all that much like an aster - and unlike most asters, it blooms beautifully in the month of May.  Regardless, they seem to grow in nice clumps and hold their own just fine in an area where we do no weeding and no cultivation.  They're just simply given their opportunity to live, bloom and exist in their corner of the world.

Sometimes that's exactly what a plant needs.

I finally managed to get myself out to these plants with a camera during their bloom season.  Every year I have told myself to make sure I get the picture taking done, but I always seem to miss it.  It's not that I don't get to enjoy the flowers every year, it's the fact that the camera doesn't always make the trip at the same time.  You see, I had this idea that I might want to consider getting more "Silky Asters" for the farm - and I wanted to be sure I had identified them correctly before I followed through.

Well, it's a good thing I didn't fully trust the name I have assigned to these fine plant denizens at the Genuine Faux Farm.  I would have been very disappointed if I had ordered Silky Asters and not gotten the same results.

These plants are Eastern Bluestar (Amsonia tabernaemontana) and we could very well have gotten them from Prairie Moon Nursery in Winona at about the same time we picked up other plugs from Ion Exchange.  These are great plants for hummingbirds and butterflies.  Apparently, they taste pretty bad (and is also known as Blue Dogbane), so deer will leave them alone too (if that's a thing for you).

There were a few bracts of flowers that had yet to open, so I managed to hit the Eastern Bluestar at or near their peak flower cycle.  And I got the information I needed to correct a mistaken identity.