Beautiful! Love the colors! Does your Stoke's get much sun at all? I might need to move mine; had one in full sun in NH, and it was a very popular little plant. No bloom here yet, but it's in quite a bit of shade.

Those colors are so lush they almost look fake. I have Stokes Aster seedlings from Wintersowing that I haven't gotten in the ground yet. I think I'll plant them in a partly shaded area. As the sun moves in the sky, they will gradually have more sun. Yours are beautiful, and their popularity is an extra bonus.

Martha

Bernergrrl, wild stokes asters are blooming everywhere now in places ranging from full sun to mostly shade. They don't need much sun to grow and bloom, as a matter of fact, the blue seems to be darker in the shade. The ones in my garden are in a mostly shady area, with a little sun here and there.

Martha, when I edited the pictures of the butterflies on stokes aster, I turned up the saturation a little bit, but not much. The actual color is only a little paler than shown in the picture. And the variegated fritillary benefitted from rays of western sun shining on it. Still, every picture I've made of a VF makes them look more brilliant than they do to the naked eye. I have no idea why.

Sherry

Beautiful Sherry, I must plant some asters next spring!

Sherry

I am so in love with your camera!!!
That picture would make a beautiful beautiful POSTER
I would put it up on the wall right now in my reading room
Where I enjoy decorating with posters.

I have several Fritts hanging out in my yard right now they
Remind me of my American Ladies because they like to poke abt
In low level vegetation so much.
They can certainly fly higher when they find something they like!
They have been all over the blooms of this Tropical Milkweed.

I am expecting more Gulfs now because these Passiflora blooms
Are already slipping;I can see young green fruits.

DD

I went on a three hour butterfly count and counted 37 Great Spangled Frittilaries. They were surpassed in number only by Common Wood Nymphs and Banded Hairstreaks. I had a GSF flying around my garden the day before.
A great year for Violets and Frittilaries.

John

Another beautiful pic, Sherry.

Don't you love it with the sun shines on them (or behind them) and it makes them look even more brilliant......like stained glass.
Although, I guess I should say that stained glass looks almost as good as butterflies! haha

Yes, sometimes the sunlight is just right, Catherine!

Leafhead, that's an INCREDIBLE number of great spangled frits!

Dee, my passionvines are huge now, I could feed any army of cats, but the VF didn't leave any eggs (as far as I know) - I suspect it was a male. I haven't seen even one gulf frit. I sure wish they'd show up!

Debra, stokes asters are extremely easy to grow, so, if you have a mostly shady area where other things won't grow or bloom, stokes asters would be a good choice.

Sherry