New York Aster is a plant of margins, both ecological and horticultural. In the wild it colonizes tidal fresh marshes, shrub wetlands, and sandy shores across the mid-Atlantic; in the garden it slots comfortably into the front of a border or along a rock garden path where its compact, low-growing habit edges out weeds through sheer density. The violaceous ray flowers, arranged around a disc of yellow gold, open from late summer into October, just as most other perennials are calling it a season.

Grow it in full sun with reasonably well-drained soil, though it adapts to clay and sandy loam with equal patience. It works as a direct substitute for chrysanthemums in fall containers or seasonal bed plantings. Bees find it reliably. North Carolina representatives are classified as var. elodes, slightly shorter and more spread than the northern type. Zones 4 to 8, deer resistant.