Whenever I see asters begin to bloom, I think of autumn.

Several years ago, I bought and planted a china aster in my back garden along the fence and it always spends the summers growing green leaves, growing bushy, and shooting toward the sky. Then in around the first week of September, it would put on this marvelous show. I’m not sure if it will do that year because it seems, there’s a hyssop in the way. Either way, I will probably miss the show this year since my mom has decided to drag me half-way around the world for a month, despite my rejections.

I am glad, however, to still see asters in the front garden. I am so glad to see this blue aster and I love this shade of blue. There aren’t too many varieties of flowers that has this color. I wish I remember the variety of this particular aster.

I planted 2 varieties of asters – color carpet and Matsumoto blue and both varieties have this shade of blue. I will have to learn to better track of what I plant next year.

Anyway, I couldn’t believe when I saw this plant already starting to bloom early this month. “Is too soon for autumn, isn’t it?” I asked it. A few days later, I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I saw a news report that mentioned leaves on trees are changing colors and shedding their leaves early this year because of the drought and heat. So autumn is really coming early this year and with me being gone most of next month, I might miss the fall foliage too.

I’ll close with an aster from my perennial bush from a few years ago.

The Flower Hour