Not any more blue this year.

[leene_chan]

Stokes Aster "Peachie's Pick," Year Two., a photo by Leenechan on Flickr.

Curse you, Park Seed, for providing a photoshopped picture of this flower that fooled me into thinking it'd be sky blue!

Still, it's a pretty shade of purple. Late summer bloomers are so precious! I'm thinking of getting some more of these next year for variety in the gardens. My local nursery had a lot of them this summer in pink, yellow and white as well as the typical purple. The pink ones had flowers that were four inches across! XD Huge!

I gave "Moondance" a good haircut and threw all the thrip-damaged refuse away in the trash in a sealed plastic baggie. The good news is that the rosebush appears to have every intention of producing more canes and flowers. The next bud that's opening up doesn't have any visible thrip damage...yet. This is really going to have to be my cross to bear. I'm fine with using insecticidal soap, but I do not want to use systemic pesticides.

So please, new flower bud! Open up pure white and healthy!