This week: Goldenrod for the Garden
Hello!
Sometimes, there are native plants I don’t like. For example, I rarely recommend Goldenrod—a well-regarded Keystone species—to clients. However, Goldenrod has numerous benefits: It is a host plant for more than 100 species of caterpillars, and at least 40 species of insects collect its pollen. It is also a fall bloomer, providing sustenance to beneficial insects just as other plants are winding down. So what is there to dislike, you wonder?
3 Reasons Why I Don’t Recommend Goldenrod
The first reason is Solidago canadensis, commonly called Canada Goldenrod. It spreads aggressively through rhizomes and seeds and pops up anywhere with disturbed soils. It quickly grows six feet tall and crowds out other plants. It’s a bully in the garden, growing all over neighborhoods and blanketing fields and roadsides. Because Canada Goldenrod is so abundant in our local seed bank, there is no shortage of insect-supporting Goldenrod in this area.
While it benefits the ecosystem, you should weed it out of your garden unless you want a Goldenrod mass planting in a year or two. However, letting it grow in areas you don’t maintain is fine and, dare I say, downright admirable.
Second, it is tough to distinguish the “good” Goldenrod from Canada Goldenrod without a sharp eye and a lot of experience. This makes it incredibly difficult to weed out volunteer Canada Goldenrod plants from intentionally planted Goldenrod.
And finally, if you have tall Goldenrod plants in your garden, you may attract the ire of neighbors. Not only does it look like a common roadside “weed,” it is wrongly blamed for seasonal allergies. Ragweed and Goldenrod bloom at the same time. Many people are allergic to Ragweed, while Goldenrod pollen generally doesn’t bother people. But they bloom around the same time, and Goldenrod is blamed. Why invite trouble?
Choosing the Right Goldenrod Plant
After 200+ words maligning Goldenrod, I must confess: I planted it in my own garden. I chose Solidago sphacelata ‘Golden Fleece,’ a compact cultivar under three feet tall with round leaves quite distinct from Canada Goldenrod so that I could tell the difference. I planted it right at the edge of my garden and marked the spot so I wouldn’t be tempted to weed it away. Over the years, it has stayed in one place and remained low-growing.
When I selected my Goldenrod, I followed guidance from a Goldenrod trial conducted by Chicago Botanic Gardens. They found that short-stature clumping cultivars behaved the best in garden settings.
Their top performers included:
Solidago ‘Baby Sun’ (hybrid)
Solidago ‘Goldkind’ (hybrid)
Solidago rugosa ‘Fireworks’
Solidago sphacelata ‘Golden Fleece’
So, if you want Goldenrod in your garden, start with one of these and be kind to your future self—label it!
Elsewhere:
If you’re a history buff and a gardener, check out The Secret History of the British Gardens on the free streaming network Tubi. It’s an entertaining introduction to Western garden history, from labyrinths and knot gardens in the 1600s to urban agriculture during the Blitz.
Have a great week,
Julie