I grow both of these. The NE aster 'Alma Patche' was bought by my sister at a H Depot in NJ. It looks very nice either left to grow tall or pinched to keep it shorter and more compact. I use a crosshatched plant support for it. Love the Rudbeckia 'Golden Glow', though it spreads it is easily controlled. I dug up a lot of it this spring after three years. I use it to bring out the golden center of a tall lily that blooms at the same time. It gets floppy in my garden so I cage it with twine wound around four stakes. The foliage hides both the twine and stakes. When done blooming I cut the foliage back as it can look ratty.

Could be Aster Yellows disease, but looks more like the eriophyid mites. There are some older threads here with some more information.

The photo in Kathy's Leonotis link appears closest to my photo. Only thing is that mine is a shot looking straight down upon the plants and blooms instead of as much of a side view. The stalks and leaves look identical, and the amount of petals in each bloom also seems identical. In her linked photo I do not see as noticable of hairs on the petals and the leaves like the other photos linked here and even like the photos I pulled up on different web sites. Now I am wondering if the plant and its blooms in my photo might have the hair on the petals and leaves, but they can not be seen simply because the shot was taken at more of a distance above the plants and their blooms. You guys are good. Even with only my limited description you solved it. Kathy's link has finally convinced me at least that my mystery plant is a Leonotis. Certainly the other pics I saw that made the hairs hanging from the petal and leaves so obvious, confused me and even distracted me from the beauty I saw in the flowers of my pic. Anyway, feeling like I can't keep thanking all of you enough for helping me with this. You have certainly given me a starting point to research if there might be different cultivars of this plant, which demonstrate or produce much less noticable hairs on the leaves and petals. And if so, that will certainly motivate me to put forth lots of effort to get my favorite nursery to begin selling them.

Thanks all! One might rather choose to grow its near-relative Cosmos caudatus instead though, because it apparently has healthy, edible leaves that taste like mangoes!!! Cosmos caudatus has pale pink flowers – but it is mostly grown for its leaves. The young shoots taste refreshing. A friend likened its taste to that of a mango, and he’s right. I’d gladly eat a whole bunch of cosmos caudatus – it is that tasty, and more so since it is said to improve blood circulation, lower uric acid, reduce body ‘heat’ and is a good source of fibre.