August has come and gone at last, the kids are back at school, and the forest floor is blanketed in white. While recent weather patterns have made anything seem possible, this is not the result of a historic Labor Day blizzard, but rather the on-schedule flowering of Eurybia divaricata, or, as it is commonly known, the white wood aster.

Expert horticulturalist, native plants advocate, and close GMF neighbor Deborah (Deb) Munson advises homeowners who see that snowy carpet abutting their yards at the forest’s edge to welcome the asters. They bring a host of late-season benefits to the garden and broader ecosystem alike.

“I think asters are very misunderstood,” said Deb in a recent interview, “which is unfortunate because they’re one of the greatest plants for pollinators and caterpillars,” second only in caterpillar hosting to fellow autumn-flowering goldenrod. The white wood aster is among the first of the New World asters to bloom in late August, and it has already brightened the dry and shady corners of Northwest Connecticut’s yards and woodlands.

If you’ve glanced out from your kitchen window in the past week, taken a recent stroll on one of GMF’s trails, or paid a long-weekend visit to your garden, chances are you’ve seen these late bloomers thriving under dappled sunlight, their individual stems mingling with their neighbors to create a veritable stronghold of delicate white blossoms.

The white wood aster’s ability to cover ground so extensively can alarm home gardeners and yard keepers who may find them to be “messy and weedy,” Deb said, but she assured that they provide a wealth of services.

That ability to provide a herbaceous groundcover is actually one of the aster’s greatest assets, she explained. “I believe in plants sort of being their own mulch,” Deb said, and the white wood aster can provide a perfect “carpet” in shadier portions of one’s garden or at the fringe where the yard meets the forest. She explained they flourish in the “ecotone” area at the woodland edge, or under a canopy that provides dappled shade.

Letting the garden, yard, or woodland mulch itself with understory plants and autumn leaf fall keeps the ecosystem contained, protecting against diseases or invasive species that could be brought in by an external material. Plus, it’s cost effective: “you pay people to take your debris away, and then you pay them to bring in mulch.” Deb suggested it’s cheaper, simpler, and safer to let the plants do the heavy lifting for you.

Plus, they’re self-sufficient. As they self-sow and are generally hardy, they require little maintenance. In Deb’s words: “They’re pretty carefree.”

Deb pointed out that like many other native fall-blooming wildflowers, they are drought-tolerant, unlike lots of non-native species that are sold at garden centers: “Native plants are adapted to our region, and they have more resiliency… I feel like it’s pretty dry right now, but it doesn’t seem like the asters are skipping a beat.” As erratic weather patterns, including droughts, persist, species that are able to withstand dry weather will continue to provide vital ecosystem functions and also, in the case of garden and yard populations, save water for homeowners.

And finally, aesthetics matter – as Deb put it, “they’re beautiful.” Since they are plants that flower in autumn, their comparatively humble springtime appearance of green, serrated foliage may entice many gardeners to pull them prematurely, unaware of the decorative potential in just a few months when the most glamorous spring ephemerals have long since shed their petals. Their good looks serve an ecological purpose too, bringing in bees, butterflies, and other late-season pollinators whose options for a meal are dwindling.

“If you’re not too tidy and antiseptic about your woodland edges, you could have an amazing display of asters and goldenrod,” Deb said, among other misunderstood yard-dwellers such as white snakeroot (Ageratina altissima). “I look out on my woodland edge, right off my porch, and I’m looking at goldenrod and aster divaricata (Eurybia divaricata), the white wood aster, and there’s Symphyotrichum cordifolium there.”

Deb advised the curious to keep their eyes peeled for a number of other fall flowering perennials just starting to show their colors: the deep purple New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), the flat-topped aster (Doellingeria umbellata), and the smooth aster (Symphyotrichum laeve), in addition to many others.

Deb said that she feels American landscaping aesthetics have erred too far in the direction of the sterile, and that she encourages homeowners and land managers in the Northwest Corner to embrace a “wilder” sensibility in their gardens and properties. Not only does welcoming fall wildflowers bring a jolt of color to one’s yard as the days ruthlessly shorten, but it establishes a communion between the home and the broader ecosystem that has largely eroded in much of modern Western life.

“I think learning your land is an important thing to do,” Deb said, and she has the resources for those looking to get started. For field guides, she recommends Lawrence Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide and Ted Elliman & New England Wild Flower Society’s Wildflowers of new England. She also suggests two introductory guides on local native plants: Native Plants for New England Gardens by Mark Richardson and Dan Jaffe and The Northeast Native Plant Primer by Uli Lorimer.

For those looking to chat directly to expert gardeners or start preparing for their own native plant garden, Deb has a list of local nurseries specializing in wild plants to check out: Lindera in Falls Village, the Native Plant Trust’s nursery Nasami Farm in Whately, Massachusetts, Earth Tones Native Plants Nursery in Southbury, Connecticut, and Helia Native Nursery in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.