Golden Aster, maybe?

I love plants. Recently in a bout of existential crisis, I looked up possible careers in horticulture. Although a career change doesn't appear to be in my immediate future, I enjoy expanding my rather limited plant knowledge.

I keep notes. I have diagrams drawn with plant locations and dates planted detailed. Many of these diagrams also have plants crossed out when I've killed them they've died and new attempts written into the same space.

One of the great things about a love of plants is that there are so many of us with the same interest, and we like to share. I adore receiving little plastic buckets with the start of a flower from someone's yard, accompanied by advice for where to plant it and encouragement that it cannot be killed.

But sometimes I have no idea what sort of flower I'm getting.

This is what happened last year when my cousin handed me two starts of plants that she said did really well in her yard. She didn't know what either of them were. This spring, I have this:

Click to enlarge. It's worth it.

To make matters more confusing, this isn't marked on my diagram where I expected it to be. I assumed I had just switched the placement of two plants when I wrote them down, but now I'm seeing growth where I originally thought I'd planted Mystery Plant #1...

Maybe it's not from my cousin? If not, where did it come from? I wondered if I was growing a very healthy, very beautiful, weed. Then I remembered that weediness is in the eye of the beholder, so it's not a weed unless I decide it is. The plant is huge, probably 3' tall and covered, as you can see, with those little yellow flowers. I spent some time with my friend Google this morning, and it might be a golden aster of some sort.* 

Or not. Whatever it is, it's happy in my flower bed and very beautiful. I can't ask for anything more than that.

*If you have any thoughts about its identity, please let me know.