Heterotheca villosa Golden Sunshine - Hairy goldenaster

Heterotheca villosa 'Golden Sunshine', with an unpronounceable name, is nothing but a Texas aster with a surprising yellow flowering. This perennial deserves to be better known and more widely used in gardens where the soil requires a very specific selection of plants that are not water-intensive. Blooming abundantly in late summer and autumn, at the same time as our summer asters, this very hardy plant shows a dense habit that is more or less spreading depending on the growing conditions, and narrow, hairy, and green-gray semi-evergreen foliage that is resistant to diseases. It requires well-drained soil, even rocky, poor, and dry.

The yellow aster belongs to the Asteraceae family. It is native to canyons and, more rarely, wetter areas of Texas, California, and New Mexico. The 'Golden Sunshine' variety, from which it originates, has a particularly abundant and bright flowering. This perennial shows a dense, spreading, and open tufted habit from spring onwards. It will reach a height of 30 to 60cm (12 to 24in) when in bloom, depending on the availability of food and water, and will spread over 50cm (20in), with fairly rapid growth. The very generous flowering takes place from August to October. The inflorescence is a head with peripheral ligulate flowers of intense golden yellow. The central flowers (the heart) are brown. Together, they form delicate corymbs composed of countless small daisies. The semi-evergreen leaves are narrow and elongated, pointed at their tips, with a dentate margin and slightly pubescent. This plant slowly spreads through ramified rhizomes and shows good longevity.

It is impossible to imagine our homes without aster beds or borders. This one is original, very resistant, and particularly undemanding. It is a perfect plant for gardens without gardeners, and for regions with dry and hot summers, as it can do without care and watering. It goes very well with all other plants in the bed, such as Heleniums, to which it bears a resemblance, Salvia microphylla, Limonium gmelinii subsp. hungaricum, Rudbeckia triloba, or the other aster that likes dry soils, Aster diplostephioides. This yellow aster will give its best when planted in groups of 3 to 5 plants, in large sunny beds, on large dry slopes, in the back of the garden that is never watered. It accompanies the autumn colours until the gates of winter. Worth trying and planting without any risk, other than getting a yellow bed. Suitable for most regions.