Asters

[karenlee]

Last year I planted 3 Aster "clumps" purchased from a local nursery. This year two of them are growing in a "clump" again but the third one has spread into a couple dozen individual plants growing in a 2 foot radius from the original clump (nothing growing there), weird? Karen E

[IntrepidMeredith]

Sounds like the third plant may have been older and ready to be divided. Many older perennials will die out in the center leaving a ring of new growth. You can dig out the old, dead central clump and replant the babies wherever you need them. It is a bit weird that it happened in a plant you just bought last year, but maybe that plant was actually a holdover from the year before, so it was actually an older plant? Who knows? In the future, you can avoid center die-out by making sure you dig up and divide your plants every few years.