Much has been written about the value of including asters in your garden as a late-season source of food for pollinators.

For this reason, I have included several in mine. However, there is one that continues to provide for fall’s frenzied insects while others finished blooming weeks ago. That plant is my Tatarian aster “Jindai.”

While I was busy with my fall garden cleanup, I took a break to observe the activity on this plant. (This is the reason why garden chores always take much longer than they should!) It was swarming with honeybees, bumble bees, wasps, a variety of flies, several tiny butterflies and a lurking jumping spider waiting for a meal.

This aster is unique in that it grows upright to a height of four feet. While other asters tend to flop and some need to be staked, Jindai stems are stiff and no staking is required to keep it looking tidy in the garden.

Due to its height, this aster is planted in the back of my border.

The bloom is lavender with bright yellow centers. The 1-inch flowers are arranged in flat-topped clusters providing a perfect landing platform for hungry insects. As I do with other asters, there is no need to do the early summer bud cutback to shorten stems and reduce flopping.

This is truly a plant-and-forget-about-it perennial. The flowers will remain attractive until the first killing frost.

Aster “Jindai” emerges in the spring as large paddle-shaped leaves. As the stems lengthen, the leaves become smaller. The base leaves and stems remain green throughout the growing season. It does not exhibit the bare, brown legs of other asters so obvious as they get ready to bloom.

This aster is a full sun perennial. It prefers lean, well-drained soil. Loose, moist soil encourages excessive growth leading to flopping plants. Mine has spread backward under the barn overhang against which it is planted. This means part of the plant is growing in extremely dry conditions but still it thrives.

Is there a downside to this seemingly perfect plant? It does spread by rhizomes so over time it can take more garden space than might be preferred.

I take a shovel in the spring and remove sections from its perimeter keeping its size in check. It is not a native perennial; it was discovered in Japan.

The pollinator plant purists might not want it in their garden, however, the cloud of pollinators swarming the plant indicates they couldn’t care less.

Due to its late bloom, an early heavy frost can prevent its fall show.

Finally, it is occasionally affected by wilt and powdery mildew. I have seen neither of these.

For more information see visit https://go.osu.edu/jindaiaster

Steffen is an Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Mahoning County.