Asters bloomed again this year

 Among the nursery rhymes (Korean traditional children's song) I often sang when I was young, there was a nursery rhyme called “Asters.” “Asters bloomed this year too. The flower garden was in full bloom beautifully. My older sister loved asters. When they bloomed, she lived in the flower garden.” As simple and cute as the song says, these asters are useful flowers that have been distributed in flower markets for a very long time from late summer to fall.

 

Asters with simple beauty (Image by Urszula from Pixabay)

What about asters?

 Asters were originally a flower that grew naturally in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria, but they were brought to France around the 18th century and bred into the more recent asters. It is a flower of the Asteraceae family and has many cute little flowers, making it perfect for cut flowers. This improved variety was developed in Japan as a cut flower variety and was re-imported to Korea. The distribution name is known as Matsumoto Aster, and it was also called Aster in the early days of import. Various colors have been developed, including not only purple, but also purple, orange, pink, yellow, and red. Because of these various colors, it is also called Rainbow Aster.

 There are two types of flowers: those with tongue flowers only at the edges and those with tongue flowers all the way to the center. The calyx is made of several layers, supporting the flower reliably. However, the stems are very thin and can easily break, so you need to be very careful when conditioning them. Conditioning takes quite a bit of time as you have to lightly hold the flower head and use light force to pull down the lower leaves.

 Since it is a flower that is distributed from the hot summer season to fall, it is prone to stem softness, so it is necessary to frequently change water and cut new stems. I feel that the best management method is to treat it with boiling water and then water it.

 It is economical as you can get quite a lot of flowers from a single bunch, but you need to be careful because if you do not condition it properly, mold may form in the lower part of the dense growth. Personally, I don't prefer flower refrigerators, so I store them at room temperature even in the hot summer. However, the temperature is controlled by adding ice to the water bottle. The biggest reason is that although it may look fresh in the refrigerator, the preservation time of fresh flowers after they are sold is very short due to the temperature difference when they come out of the refrigerator. no see. Customers who come to our shop like my care methods and give me compliments like, “The flowers I bought at your shop really last a long time.”

 

The unique petals of the asters ( Image by Jürgen from Pixabay)

How to use asters

 Asters distributed in the market are cut to a height of approximately 60cm. When choosing at the wholesale market, the key point is to carefully check the thickness of the stem before purchasing. Asters have particularly thin stems at the bottom of the head, so they often break, so it is important to choose ones that are somewhat thick.

 In the cut flower state, it will vary depending on the care method, but it will last for about 5 to 7 days and is good for use as a mass flower or filler. However, it is not suitable as dried flower because it is prone to mold growth.

 Recently, there are asters with a variety of colors in the hand tier, making them great for harmonious composition with mist flowers, rice flowers, etc. In particular, asters have a simple and friendly image, so they can be a very good choice for customers who want a bouquet with a wild flower feel. I remember that a product that was carelessly packaged with several stems of asters and rice flowers using raffia and Korean paper was a good product to cool off in the hot summer heat. They were a couple from Malaysia on their honeymoon, and they really liked it, saying it had a Korean feel. The pretty couple took several great photos wearing flower crowns on the beach and stopped by again to show off.