Impulse buying

Instead of spending this weekend cutting back all the mildewed and fungus-riddled foliage in my garden, I did what any red-blooded gardener worth her weight in compost would do -- I went plant shopping. I'd only planned to purchase one rose, but when I got to the nursery they had one of those "buy 'x' number of plants and get 'x' number of plants free" sales going on and who could resist that?

I came away with my rose and some calamintha (I'd been impressed with the plant when I saw it during a photo shoot for our design series earlier this summer) plus something else that I thought was a veronica.

Seems I'm dyslexic as well as impulsive, though. The plant is actually vernonia -- something I've never heard of before.

I bought it because the tag said 'native' and I had a tough, outer-border spot that I was trying to fill. And also because it said it would bloom in late summer-fall (always a down time in my garden). But the main reason that it caught my eye was its color -- a deep violet that the photo just doesn't capture.

No, it didn't look like any of my other veronicas. But then, most of my other veronicas don't look like each other either.

Turns out vernonia glauca is actually a member of the aster family. Its common name is upland ironweed. (Now that sounds like something I ought to be able to grow!)

If any of you have this plant, I'd love to know more about it. I either want to be able to dance the dance of joy for getting such a bargain or console myself with the fact that at least I didn't pay full price.