'False sunflowers' truly attractive

A golden finch flew past me on its way to sample our heliopsis plants. The tiny, feather-weight bird was searching for ripe seeds, no doubt, because after it landed on a slender stem that supported one of the plant's flowers, it proceeded to peck at the flower's seed head.

I knew beforehand the heliopsis seeds weren't quite ripe. After sampling several of the flowers, the finch realized it too. But soon the finch will have dozens of seed heads to probe, since heliopsis plants produce hundreds of flowers during their summer-to-fall growing season.

A perennial and a member of the daisy family that's native to North America, Heliopsis helianthoides is also known as "false sunflower" or "oxeye sunflower."

Heliopsis means "sun-appearance" in Greek, and true to its name, each flower looks like a stylistically depicted sun that's surrounded by sun-ray-shaped flower petals.

As attractive in cut-flower displays as they are in gardens, Heliopsis blooms are 3 inches across and pose atop stems that are typically up to 3 feet tall. The flowers have yellow-orange petals and dark-yellow centers.

Their green leaves have toothed edges and are up to 6 inches long by 3 inches wide.

Growing heliopsis

Our heliopsis specimens are decades old, yet without infringing upon neighboring plants, they've remained within the original space first reserved for them. They also bloom well in full sun or part shade, providing the soil drains freely. Plus, established plants tolerate hot summers, prolonged droughts and severe winters.

Besides seed-eating birds, Heliopsis attracts a plethora of pollinating insets. But the only insect pest I've seen periodically attracted to them is aphids.

Which reminds me, native Americans were attracted to heliopsis plants for medicinal reasons. In fact, they made a tea from Heliopsis leaves to relieve congestion. So, do you think that golden finch had a cold or an allergy?

After all, it was poking around for Heliopsis seeds somewhat early. Then again, the early bird gets the worm, or the seeds, as the case may be.

This week in the garden

Tomato plants are self-pollinating. If you jostle flowering branches daily to dislodge their pollen, the plants will produce more tomatoes.