Climbing Aster is a native sprawling perennial that plays by its own rules. Rather than growing upright, it sends out long, arching stems that lean against whatever is nearby — a post, a neighbouring shrub, a run of wire fencing — and uses those supports to hoist itself above the surrounding vegetation. It is a plant of marshy shores and wet woodland edges from the Carolinas southward, perfectly at home in the kind of soggy, semi-wild spots where other garden plants would sulk. The side branches extend horizontally, reaching for light, which gives the whole plant a layered, almost cloud-like quality when it finally blooms.

The flowers arrive in late summer and push through fall: pink to soft purple daisy-like blooms with warm yellow centres, often covering the plant when nearly everything else in the border has gone over. Deer leave it alone. Bees do not. It grows vigorously enough to require periodic division, and the long stems can be cut back hard in late spring once new growth shows — resist the urge to tidy it in autumn, as the stems provide structure and modest wildlife cover through winter. Given a fence line, a rough hedge, or even a sturdy neighbouring shrub to clamber through, it becomes one of the most reliable and generous-spirited plants of the late season.