This is a tall pink Michaelmas Daisy called Harrington’s Pink. It’s a New England Aster and they are well known for producing large colourful flowers on sturdy woody stems. They are also resistant to mildew which other Asters are prone to.
There’s nothing subtle about this plant. It’s tall growing to around five feet or so. The flowers and all the insects that love these nectar rich plants are right in your face. Which is brilliant for taking pictures… no bending or crouching required!
This Aster has been renamed recently… the correct Latin name is Symphyotrichum novae-angliae ‘Harrington’s Pink’ It’s a hardy perennial and flowers late in the season (usually September and October) making a good sturdy clump of tall stems with loads of buds. These plants are brilliant for providing food for insects when many other garden plants have finished flowering. Butterflies love them, Bees love them too.
I took these photos at lunchtime. It is better to choose softer light in the early morning or evening if you can for the nicest flower photos. I just loved the way the bright pink flowers shimmered in the sunshine and I’m a firm believer in taking the shot when you can. Besides all the insects are more active in the warm sun at mid-day too. I used my macro lens for all the shots and took 30 pictures in total so I could choose the best 7 for this post.
Welcome to Looking Good
This is week 2 of my Friday Blogging event. We would love to see what’s looking good in your garden or neighbourhood.
How to Add your Post:
- Write your post as normal and please include a link to this post.
- Click the Frog to add your Url/web address for your post and link your post.
- Please leave a comment here.
- To welcome other time zones the link is open from just after midnight on Friday 2nd October until 12 noon (London/British Summer Time) on Saturday
Thanks very much for joining in with Looking Good! Gillian 🙂
Bees certainly do love asters. Yours are lovely!
Thanks Eliza. Yes… they do seem to have plenty of pollen and tubes filled with nectar for butterflies too.
I had a lovely butterfly visit and did a post, and clicked the frog to link. I hope it works!
I am looking forward to reading the other posts too.
Thanks very much for joining in today.
I do love my asters.. My new england asters are still blooming…I linked up…Michelle
Thanks very much for joining in Michelle.
Wonderful photos. My asters are looking good too, but you beat me to it!!
Oh sorry Annette. You could show us anyway! It’s likely that we will all have similar ideas to start with then I think we will become more creative and include something a bit different.
No problem – I got to choose the Gentian instead.
The photos are stunning as usual. And am loving the photography tips. I just take mine on an old digital camera. It takes a lot of photos sometimes just to get it focus on the right thing
Thanks very much for your comment and for linking up to share your lovely photos. That’s the great thing with digital cameras. You can take as many shots as you like until you are happy that you got the shot. Is there a way that you could set your camera to focus on the middle of the picture? You may find instructions online for how to set the focus for your camera. Just type in the model number and you will probably find the whole guidebook in digital form.
Thanks very much for linking up and sharing what’s looking good in your garden. We have noticed that our first frosts are a few weeks later now Eliza. Usually huge flocks of Geese fly in from the far north and we have the first frosts around 4th October. We’ve had a few geese but no sign of cold weather yet. 18C here today!
I am jealous of your butterflies. Our asters are humming with bees, but there is not a butterfly to be seen this year. 🙁
I have seen quite a lot of butterflies over the past few days it has been so sunny and warm. We have quite a few little brown butterflies in the garden too. But this summer I’d say the numbers were well down on previous years. Populations can bounce back quickly though can’t they? I’m trying to provide food plants for butterflies and their caterpillars and stretch the season out for them.
The Asters are so vibrant and alive! Love your butterflies and bees happily feeding from them. I’ll keep an eye out for them at the garden center in the spring. Here is what is looking good despite our rain: https://forestgardenblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/looking-good-cleaned-up-and-freshly-planted/ Best wishes, WG
Thanks very much for joining in with looking good this week.
A pleasure! Thank you for adding my link to your page. It is nice to see your responses growing 😉
So pretty! I noticed our nerines are in flower and that means Autumn’s definitely here 🙁
Yes Jo! It’s that time of year again. I must admit that I do enjoy seasonal changes in the garden.