This spring, one is coming up and looking fabulous. The other one, not so much. It seems to have a lot of stems turning brown and dying out in the center. I cut out the dead stems once a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday there were more.

Two questions:

1) Does this sound like Aster wilt?

2) If so, here is my quandry: I really need two of these for this display. Do I dig up and trash the one that has wilt, then divide the other and replace it? Or would it be plant homicide to put a new Aster division in a hole that formerly housed a plant with wilt?

I'm not even sure if it's getting too late to divide. The healthy one was up about a foot when I pinched it back to about 6" a week or so ago.

If these are going to be finicky and prone to disease, maybe I need to rethink and put something else there. I need something about 1.5 to 2 feet tall that blooms in fall. Pink, purple or yellow. I was thinking maybe Moonbeam Coreopsis if Asters are going to be a pain. What do you think? Thanks!