With the turning of leaves our world has warmed up with shades of yellow, orange and yellow. Very prominent, even the perennial garden is weighted on the warm side with lots of yellow, dotted with green from a few noteworthy cool season plants. The most desirable color for our fall garden would be blue. Blue is in fact a desirable color most of the time, think of it with the many yellow daisies of summer or with drifts of yellow daffodils in spring. Even a blue garden bench or a stand of marginally hardy eucalyptus will carry through more than one season and enhance the plantings around them. Not a common color in flowers, the gardener must seek it out, something not difficult when you include asters in your perennial garden. Stunning in fall is Aster 'Raydon's Favorite', a late flowering aster that begins to flower in early October and holds until the first week of November, no doubt from the fact that cooler temperatures hold petals in place. Flowering only slightly earlier is Aster 'October Skies", shorter than. A. 'Raydon's', it is related, originating from the same seed pod (I believe). One plant will mound into a three foot clump the first year it is planted. Fabulous with Sedum 'Purple Emperor', it's so nice to have happy flowering combinations for later in the year when the gardener tends to get sick and tired of the garden.

Aster foliage is simple and not any sort of special attribute with the two I have mentioned. It is the strength of their stems that elevate them over so many others. Woody, sometimes to a fault, the stems will snap if bumped against, but they hold up other plants and will do a great job if not tested by brushing against as you walk in your garden. A few asters do have notable foliage, two favorites are A. 'Lady in Black' and A. 'Prince'. Both have small white flowers mixed with very black foliage. As much as we love blue in our garden, it is essential to have dark leafed plants, if only to add dimension. For that reason I also love the dark leafed heucheras and euphorbias. A euphorbia of note is the recent hybrid Euphorbia 'Blackbird'. The gardener knows that when we speak of black we are really talking about dark purple, but in this case I see black, like India ink black. The foliage on E. 'Blackbird' will persist through winter, it is best planted with something that persists as well. pansies, gray rosettes of mullien foliage, black ophiopogon, and lavender are a few ideas. Fall combinations are great, winter ones even better.