Michigan Asters

Asters carry the turn of the season in their petals: dozens of slender rays circling a golden center, in violet, plum, lavender-pink, and clean white. The name comes from the Greek word for star, and a well-branched stem really does read like a small constellation. Best of all, they hit their stride when much of the summer garden is winding down, which is exactly why a handful of asters feels like a gift in a late September arrangement.

Several asters are true Michigan natives, including the New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), which the University of Michigan’s Michigan Flora records growing wild across the state. It blooms from late summer into October, when little else is still flowering, which makes it one of the most important late-season nectar sources for monarch butterflies fueling their long migration south. That deep local history is part of why asters feel so at home in a Michigan bouquet.

Cut fresh from our member farmers’ fields, asters hold far better in the vase than blooms trucked in from across the country, which tend to shatter and drop their petals after a long haul in a cooler. Because ours arrive locally grown and just-cut, they earn a real place in our floral design work and in our DIY buckets. Reserve a bucket, request asters alongside dahlias, rudbeckia, or airy cosmos, and build your own armful of fall color to arrange at home.