Variegated asters do spread (8)
I believe the answer is:
assorted
'variegated' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'asters do spread' is the wordplay.
'spread' indicates anagramming the letters.
'asters'+'do'='astersdo'
'astersdo' is an anagram of 'ASSORTED'.
(Other definitions for assorted that I've seen before include "Odd-shaped" , "Stared so at a varied mixture as of sweets" , "Mixed" , "Classified" , "Of different kinds put together, like sweets" .)