We interrupt the happiness of spring in the garden to note that one of the Aster oblongifolius 'October Skies' has offered up a flower.
A flower.
This flower is several months early, no doubt because this plant knows it is dying and has decided that it must set seed now before it is in such poor condition that it can't set seed at all.
I suspect it has a botrytis blight of some kind. This same
