I'm sure you could get plugs from Germania, probably pretty cheap this time of year. They are brokers for a lot of growers. You'd have to get quite a few, though, probably a mix. You know those are annuals, right?

Jeanne

Actually I'm a little curious about Matsumoto asters also...I've thrown some plugs in this year and would love to hear anyone's experiences with them as I've never grown them before..My experiences with any china asters are pretty limited and I got a little concerned the more I read about aster yellow so I'm playing around with a limited amount..I forget Jeanne if you mentioned the asters you were growing you were keeping on in the hoophouse to keep the leaf hoppers away or not (Randi brain very sieve-like for info retention sometimes)..
In any event my plugs all came from Ball gotten through work but Germania sounds like a good bet..
Randi

I read one report that the Matsumotos were absolutely the worst for disease. Since even the best are difficult for me I didn't try them. Let us know how it works out for you.

They're the worst for all sorts of diseases here, along with Serenade. I'm better off with Standy, Benary's Giant, and Giant Princess. Unicum does pretty well also, not as well as the other three. That may all be irrelevant in Alabama, in such a different climate.

I keep the asters in the greenhouse in a row-cover cave until I plant them out in a row-cover tunnel. We have zillions of leafhoppers here and I swear every single one carried the yellows. If I don't grow them covered right from the start, there is no crop. Some geographical areas are worse than others. Somebody grew them outside successfully, was it Kristen?

I have to confess that they're still in the greenhouse because the first group got too big to plant out by the time I was almost healed from my latest injury, and now I have another injury. The planting-time window is closing quickly, so the second group probably never will get planted out either. C'est la vie! They will probably end up on the compost heap, IF they still haven't gotten the yellows by the time I toss them. If they have, they get burned. Aster yellows are nothing to fool with.

Jeanne

The Matsumoto Series is the China Aster of choice for the larger cutflower growers. This variety is more heat resistant and fusarium tolerant than the others. The Standy and Unicum suffer a total meltdown here in our heat and humidity.

That just goes to show the differences in climate tolerance! I'm glad you chimed in. Goodness knows Alabama is hot and humid!

Jeanne