Plant in full to part sun and irrigate occasionally. It has proven reliably cold hardy in North Carolina and in gardens in USDA Zones 8 and above, though a frost might take out the winter and early spring flowers in these colder locals. We have had this wonderful plant in our garden for nearly 30 years, where it has grown to densely cover a space in our east facing foundation planting 6 feet deep by 15 feet wide and 8 feet tall. This plant has been trimmed nearly to the ground many times and it easily rebounds to this size within a year or two - quite the incredible plant.

Roldana aschenborniana is a widespread and variable species from along the Gulf slopes from Tamaulipas to Oaxaca in Mexico and further south into Guatemala. The name Roldana was published by Dr. Pablo de La Llave (1773 – 1833), a Mexican priest and naturalist, in 1925 to honor Eugenio Montaña y Roldan Otumbensi, who was thought to be a hero in a battle on the plains of Apam near Mexico City. This species was originally described as Senecio aschenbornianus by the German botanist and gardener Sebastian Schauer in 1847 who honored with the specific epithet Heinrich Alwin Aschenborn (1816-1865), a German lawyer, administrator and plant collector who collected plants in Mexico in the 19th century. This plant and the related Roldana petasitis that we also grow were both moved from Senecio to the genus Roldana in 1972 by Smithsonian botanists Harold Ernest Robinson and Robert D. Brettell in their "Studies in the Senecionae (Asteraceae): The Genera Psacaliopsis, Barkleyanthus, Telanthophora and Roldana" in Phytologia 27: 420 (1974). This same paper constructed the new genus Telanthophora.

This plant was first introduced into the US nursery trade in in 1992 by Carl Shoenfeld of Yucca Do Nursery as Senecio aschenborniana but we acquired it labeled just as Senecio species in the mid 1980s at M. Nevin Smith's iconic Wintergreen Nursery in Watsonville. There has also been a large plant of it, also only identified as a Senecio species, growing near the managers housing in the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum. Though we have long had this plant in the garden, we did not offer it for sale until 2023. 

The information about Roldana aschenborniana displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.