I got three last year, fall shipment, from Bluestone, little things, made a feeble attempt to put out some blooms. They weren't quite as deep a purple as I had hoped but are a nice purple color anyway.

Now I have 3, large, tidy plants that look very healthy and buds just starting to show a hint of purple, whole tops covered with buds. I don't have them mulched and haven't watered much (but lots of rain so may be different in subsequent years), no wilting, no mildew, no signs of being chewed on, no damage, and never found one Jap beetle on them (unlike so many of my plants). I'll try to take a photo for you when they bloom. Oh, one is just a little smaller because it gets a little less sun and faster drainage, think that's the reason, looks good otherwise.

This has been a bad year for many of my plants. With purple dome, it has that characteristic "spiraling" of the leaves at the base, curious, never grew asters before.

The only problems are they bloom too late (the healthy green is nice though) and take up more room than I calculated, will probably divide them in the spring but wouldn't really have to yet. It's amazing how they could start out in such small pots and grow over the summer, maybe 2-1/2 to 3' and 18+ inches circumference at the top.

I am very fond of asters. My one complaint is they are difficult to keep compact and off of neighboring plants. We have a long season here so they bloom for a long time. They propagate easily from cuttings so it is easy to increase your plantings. Al

I was not a big fan of a relatively large planting of 'Purple Dome' in my previous garden. While resistant to powdery mildew, I found they were consistently attacked by mites.

There was a long thread here a couple years back about 'Purple Dome' and other similar Asters. It was a droughty year, and most people had trouble with thier Asters. They would experience yellowing/browning foliage from the bottom up plus some mildew. The reason for this was eventually hammered out- dry soil. It seems Asters, at least novae-angliae and novi-belgii, need soil that does not dry out; that stays an even and constantly (fairly) moist.

It is very true. My NY Asters do not do well in dry soil at all. This certainly narrows the places I can plant them in! I made a slightly sunken hole (I lowered the soil level, making the surrounding ground higher) so more water would get to it and keep it moister. It has worked great. It is one of the only ones in my yard that has not shriveled and browned.

I just love the look of the NY and NE Asters. I am a sucker for upright plants with deep green foliage. Just love that texture. But I do find that my A. frikartii 'Monch' is much more tolerant of moisture fluxuations and a little dryness. Also my A. tongolensis 'Wartburg Star' (East Indies Aster)seems to do fine with a bit of drought. I plan to try more of them next year.
CMK

Maybe I was lucky all mine survived as I got them in sometime in September, and we had a harsh winter here, not record-setting but close. They were so small, and I didn't protect them.

I really like asters. They extend the season into the fall. They require no attention from me, other than cutting them back once in spring and once again, early to mid summer. I bought one for a container at my local nursery one year, that was supposedly an annual. I planted it any way and it has come back 3 yrs now and is one of my favorite asters. It was a gorgeous color blue in the container, but once in the ground, surprisingly it turned purple. Oh, well. I also have one that I bought locally called 'Painted Lady' that is very dependable in part shade. It is a pale lilac that is not my favorite color, but it grows so well, I hope to pair it with something that will make the lilac color more attractive. It looks great even this year, after unusual amounts of rain in May and June followed by heat and not much rain the rest of the summer.

The one I have in the front yard, has had some yellow foliage at the base and has not performed as well this year. I didn't know what to blame it on. But this week I noticed that it was dry. I had it planted on a slight slope and mulched too close to the crown. The water was just rolling off it. I just dug out a depression around the base of the plant and mounded up a rim to hold the water and soaked it good. So I would say, they didn't really fill out and bud up as nicely this year, during May and June when we had all that rain and cloudy weather and then at least one of mine had yellowing leaves from dryness late in the summer. So...I think they like fairly even moisture too.

I would love to add a few more asters, and would love to hear of any that people are growing that they are happy with.

The only complaint I have with mine is that the bloom doesn't last long enough and then they have the dead brown blossoms on them afterwards. I do pair mine with chyrsanthemums and sedums and the mums hit their stride just as the aster is waning. Not a lot blooms this time of year, so.

I am getting 6 Purple Dome's from Bluestone coming tomorrow. I'm planting 3 at the base of my Miscanthus 'gracillimus' and a few at the base of my Maria Stern rose. How wide do these really get? I may have to plant a couple somewhere else if they really widen out a bunch. I could plant a couple in my other rose bed. That area stays relatively moist due to my clems and roses and is in full sun.
They do look beautiful from the pics though. And, when everything else is winding down and starting to look ratty, those will be coming into their own.

Purple Dome does very well in my garden. It apparently likes my wet, moderately amended, clay soil. Color is a nice saturated vibrant purple. It grows quickly and can be divided in the 2nd or third year for additional plants. I wouldn't buy more than three even if I wanted a mass planting or to place it in several locations.

My PDs do not have the usual bare legs problem of many asters - except for the ones the rabbits get. Rabbits love Purple Dome, love, love, love it. In fact I now plant some PD around every planting of lilies. Rabbits also love to eat the lilies in spring when the lily leaves are fresh and new, but they'd rather eat the leaves off PD!The asters also help hold up leaning lily stalks and hide their declining foliage.

Purple Dome has stayed compact in my gardens, 2 ft to 30 inches, but I have had a lot of purple seedlings which are much taller with a similar, but slightly lighter color. I'm not sure if these are PD seedlings, or gifts from the birds, since most are not all that near my PDs. My original plants were planted in 2002. As my garden has aged this kind of self seeding has become fairly common.

leslie197, why would you not want to plant in several locations? Is it the seeding? I just wonder because of the 6 I'm getting. Now I'm a little concerned that I will have a problem.

I've grown Asters for years but last winter I lost a lot, still scratching my head over what went wrong. We had a very severe winter which we are not used to here, maybe that could have been the culprit.
Michaelmas Daisies are still my favorite flower I did have a bed with 60 or so different cultivars, some I imported from England, of course it was the favorites that croaked.

The New England Asters more so than the New Yorks have that problem of the lower leaves browning but keeping them moist helps prevent this also helps keep mildew at bay especially when it's hot and windy.

Some of the Asters I've turfed because they run all over the place, these were mostly N.Y's. N.E. Asters stay in nice neat clumps, but, the N.Y.'s make better cut flowers as they don't close up at night. I have never had seedlings pop up anywhere from either which seems strange because I leave the seed heads on for the birds, leaving the clean up for spring.

I'm going to pot up some root cuttings this fall to over winter in the greenhouse to ensure I don't lose any more. N.Y's can be divided either spring or fall but it is best to leave the N.E's until spring.

I bought Purple Dome a couple of years ago, love it I've had no problems with it, a lovely Aster.

If you want to share or trade the best way is to send root cuttings (best done in the spring), when you dig the clumps which you should do every couple of years by the way, wash the soil off, cut sections of root with a growth bud or two from the outside of the clump (the centers should be discarded) wrap in pieces of damp paper towel or newspaper, enclose in plastic baggies. This way you can send them in small packages, less weight. Replant outside sections back in the garden or pot up some root cuttings to plant out later when the roots have filled the pots. You can get a good sized plant from a root cutting the same year.

Sorry if I got carried away, but then these guys are favorites of mine :o).

Annette

Well, then - I'll be picking up Purple Dome this weekend! :0)

Kent, according to the the info in my book on Asters the N.E. cultivar Purple Dome will spread to about 24", height should be around 18". Apparently this uniquely compact plant was spotted growing on a roadside in Pennsylvania. It likes as much sun as you can give and needs enough water to keep it moist. There also a N.Y. Aster with the same name that grows to 36".

Annette

Rabbits loved the A. 'Purple Dome' and other smaller asters so much in my garden that they completely nibbled them down to leafless stubs. I was tired of growing them inside chicken wire cages. I don't grow them anymore because of this. I have even tried the aromatic asters, A. oblongifolius 'October Skies', that have scented foliage as a deterrent, but that didn't seem to make any difference to the rabbits.

Rabbits are bad news then. I'm a bunny hugger, but with all the other problems around here, I don't need rabbits eating my Purple Domes. My cat seems to take care of them, found two dead juveniles in my yard, can't say as I was too upset about it. When they get the smaller, cute babies, it bothers me.

We had them really bad for years, overpopulated, now none for about 3 years. Have seen them still some blocks away. If they make a comeback, I'll try some Liquid Fence on the asters although you have to regularly reapply, and I don't know how well it works because whatever I've put it on so far, evidently didn't need it. I don't mind the smell of it but it's expensive and I have lots of lilies to protect if the rabbits come back so would be more work.

Well, I have two big dogs with the dogpen upwind from the rest of the yard, the next-door neighbor has two cats that she lets roam who love to hang out in my beds (usually under the big hosta leaves), and a black stray cat that I spot occasionally hanging out. Between these 5 resident pest deterrants, the rabbits stay way in the back of the yard and nibble on the grass back there...

I don't like Purple Dome. Every year it would grow fine and look good until about August, and then it would start turning brown from the bottom up. Last year it was a completely brown plant by the time it started blooming. I took it out and bought a mum this spring instead. There's still a bit of Purple Dome that got left behind, and it's doing the brown thing again but it's got more plants around it now so it's not as noticeable. My soil holds moisture fairly well, but we often do get a dry spell by the end of the summer.

Well, I got my Purple Dome Asters. I decided to plant them around my miscanthus gracillimus instead of around my rose Maria Stern. They are now in a spot that will be a little easier I think to rip out if I don't like them next fall. I was afraid that they would get too large or overtake the hybrid tea rose, that and I thought to myself "I want something that blooms most of the year around the rose, so these are NOT it!" I opted to plant 3 achillea Richard Nelson around my Maria Stern rose (there is also 3 deep pearl blue campanulas around her too. This keeps the asters away from anything truly "valuable" in the garden. The miscanthus won't miss a beat either.
The asters are in a spot that will get quite a bit of sun too (mostly sunny site), and the soil is moist clay most of the time. I'll just have to be a little more vigilant about keeping the area watered though.

As someone mentioned, Asters have a common problem with the foilage browning up from the bottom up.

Main reason I wrote them off and went with Mammoth Mums.

Although Raydon's Fav seems to be a pretty good one. And yes Rabbits LOVE asters!

Kentstar,

Sorry what I said was tactless. I overlooked the fact that you had ordered six Purple Domes. All I really meant was that in my experience Purple Domes grow quickly and can be split in a season or so, so you don't need to buy lots of them to start, if you don't want to. I originally planted mine as singles in several locations and then added divisions elsewhere. The seedling problem is a minor annoyance or sometimes a pleasant surprise, depending on where they site themselves and how you like them there :)) and is not all that excessive. Also, I have other types of Asters, as well as a nearby wild area, that may be responsible for the seeding.

Mxk3,

As I mentioned in my earlier post - on my wet clay soil, my Purple Domes do not have bare legs or browning problems. The foliage is neat, kind of thickish looking for an aster (some of the foliage on my other asters and seedlings is much finer and the plants much taller). The foliage is a fairly dark green that stays that way until some weeks after bloomtime. Mine have not bloomed yet this season.

I love Asters, and have purchased several cultivars (don't have Purple dome though) as well as winter-sown a few species. They are easy to grow from seed and some species don't suffer from the foliage problems. I'm a sucker for pastels and love the clouds of purple/pink/indigo blooms in late summer/fall. The bees and butterflies also love Asters and they are important late season sources of pollen and nectar.

The biggest problem I've had with them this year is flopping! Next year I'm gonna whack them back to see if that helps, but couldn't do much this past spring due to injury. For the plants with scruffy or diseased foliage, they might do better in a different location, or plant something to hide the foliage. Ornamental grasses mix well with NE asters.

As for bunnies, well my cat and the hawks usually take care of those. But there is a juvenile rabbit living out back who managed to avoid the predators this year and ischerry-picking its favorite plants in my gardens (grrr). It has munched a bit on the Smooth blue aster, but has eaten my Liatris down to nubby stalks!

I'm glad you got your PD's and hope they do well for you. Mine are taking their time opening up, a tiny bit more each day. Glad I participated in the thread because we had tons of rain this year, and now I'll remember to water them in drier summers, did give them some this week because the bed isn't mulched and won't be, at least all over, until I get the self seeders established.

The reason I got them in the first place was an experienced grower brought one to a late fall rose meeting and won a prize on it, well there wasn't much competition but it deserved it regardless. From where I was sitting, it looked like a wide paint brush with just about one-inch, soft "bristles", no center, wish I'd examined it more closely, very rich purple. I don't see how mine could possibly look like what I thought I saw in hers.

And it seemed like a long single stem, like she could get way in and get a nice cut flower. Mine are so bunched on top, that I don't know if you have to prune or something to get a stem, doesn't really matter as whatever makes the flowers the most showy in the garden matters more to me.

I asked her what it was, and it took her a long time to get back to me, the name she gave me just about had to be Purple Dome but was a little different, had the words mixed up but did have dome and New England. Before that, I had literally scoured the web looking for an aster like that as I knew it was an aster from the meeting.

Now I want some pretty blue ones but so short of space unless I open up more areas or widen the existing ones I can which I don't do on a whim because it means a lot more maintenance.

The nursery didn't have "Purple Dome", so two "Dragon" made their way home with me....

They're beautiful!

Here are some photos from today. They are I'd say about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. The third photo is the "brush" effect I thought I saw in that other lady's at the meeting. I remember explicitly hers was larger and richer purple, wonder how she got the long stem.

First photo is the whole crown of the plant, second is a small grouping of blooms. They're pretty enough, a little underwhelming but a badly needed splash of color when not much else is going on.

I don't like the street/sidewalk as a backdrop, can't be helped in that bed, and I'm debating getting the disappointing roses out of there and replacing with gaillardia.

I think they'll be showier when more blooms are open, hope they last awhile.

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Looks like you'll have quite a show in a little while anyway! Lots of buds. Hope they all bloom soon for you and last a while.
This is my first try at these. Who knows, I may like them or I may be joining the ranks that don't next fall lol.

kentstar, I hope you like yours. I like them well enough, certainly better than other things I've tried, but you can see how wide they get in one season. I will try to widen that strip so I can get more variety in there, but it will mean more work. It's at the crest of a terrace, and I always wanted to tier it with limestone blocks, but have held off because of the expense and wondering if I can keep it up. It would sure enhance that whole area though.

I thought I'd try one of BS's blue ones in a damp spot in the front yard, see how that works out. Groups of 3, don't know what I'll do with the other two :-).