I don't know anything about Starburst, but I have found Lorraine Sunshine to be a weak grower in my garden, dying before the season is out. I have tried it twice, in two different gardens. Hopefully, Starburst will be more robust for you.

I've seen Lorraine Sunshine growing happily in two zone 5b or 6 gardens. Maybe it needs a little more warmth. I have H. Prairie Sunburst, and it is doing fine.

Oops, that should be Heliopsis prairie sunset. (Wish we could edit here).

juliebw wrote:

Oops, that should be Heliopsis prairie sunset.

So if I have this right you are comparing PS to LS?

I have both of these plants. PS is a much larger plant than LS.

There is no doubt LS is striking with that variegated foliage and PS has those attractive wine coloured stems and both are quite floriferous

BUT

- invariably come August my LS is infested with aphids
- PS is a (unexpected?) water hog. It quickly looks terrible in a dry spell and given it likes full sun it often looks...terrible

(Wish we could edit here).

Isn't that the truth? Sigh.

Lorraine Sunshine looks beautiful here. No insect problems at all. It's so easy to root cuttings too!

Red aphid problems here by the thousands, so I stopped growing all Heliopsis. They were simply magnets for these critters. No aphid problems on anything else. Being somewhat of a lazy gardener when it comes to insect control (meaning I'm not motivated to do any insect control), these just weren't worth the effort.

When I did grow LS, it was pretty for the first part of the summer and then ugly by the end. It self seeded like crazy. Some of the seedling were variegated to various degrees, some were plain green.

Kevin

I really did hope for a comparison between the two varigated plants, H. Starburst and Lorraine Sunshine.

I had a severe aphid problem on my Helianthus one year, but fortunately, that was the only year that happened. It was extremely dry and I think that contributed.