Florists call the tall, golden-topped stems \u201csolidago\u201d when they include them in expensive bouquets.\u00a0 I suspect that more than one person has glanced at one of those solidago-laden arrangements and said, \u201cIt looks just like goldenrod to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And that person would be right. Solidago is simply goldenrod in fancy dress.<\/p>\n
Just as ancient alchemists sought\u2014unsuccessfully\u2014to turn base metals into gold, so modern plant breeders and florists seek to turn base weeds, like goldenrod, into retail gold.\u00a0 Drive a truckload of goldenrod through an upscale neighborhood and a cargo of solidago will emerge on the other side. The Latin name has been turned into a marketing tool.<\/p>\n
Right now, goldenrod is beginning to unfurl in many places.\u00a0 Most of those places are fallow fields, hedgerow edges and other uncultivated, untenanted spaces.\u00a0 Some are gardens where thoughtfully chosen goldenrod varieties can liven up the middle or rear sections of beds and borders.\u00a0 Smaller varieties can even be grown in large containers.<\/p>\n
You would never know it to look at them, but the one hundred twenty or more goldenrod species are members of the vast daisy or Compositae family.\u00a0 The tall golden plumes, which can rise between one and three or more feet, are composed of thousands of tiny flowers, loved by butterflies and other pollinators.\u00a0 A field of goldenrod in early September is alive with all kinds of insect life.\u00a0 Keeping track of all of those goldenrod species and varieties is not easy, as they frequently grow in close proximity and tend to interbreed\u2014helped along by those accommodating pollinators.<\/p>\n
Any discussion of goldenrod\u2019s virtues is usually interrupted by someone complaining of hay fever.\u00a0 Sadly, the plants have spent decades, if not a century or so being falsely accused of flinging allergens at our vulnerable respiratory systems.\u00a0 The real culprits are unassuming fellow-traveler plants like ragweed. Most of us can enjoy goldenrod, in the wild or in our gardens, with impunity.<\/p>\n
To create effective plant pairings with goldenrod, emulate Nature, which combines the yellow plumes with the blue flowers of wild chicory and the blue-purple blooms of New England asters. Wild chicory has a weedy look, but you can get the same color effect by pairing goldenrod with hardy ageratum or Eupatorium coelestinum, sometimes also called \u201cblue mist flower.\u201d It resembles its relative, annual blue ageratum, which many people use as a bedding plant, except that it has a tall stem\u2014up to three feet. It can stand cheek by jowl with many goldenrods and it blooms at the same time.<\/p>\n
My favorite goldenrod partner is the \u2018Monch\u2019 variety of Frikart\u2019s aster or Aster x frikartii \u2018Monch\u2019.\u00a0 Readily available in garden centers or through online vendors, \u2018Monch\u2019 bears scores of small, blue daisies with yellow centers. \u2018Monch\u2019 does not so much grow as it billows forth from the earth. The plants reach two to three feet tall and up to eighteen inches wide. The stems may flop a bit, but are easily corralled with stakes or plant supports. Like perennial ageratum, \u2018Monch\u2019 is about the same height as many goldenrods and blooms at the same time.<\/p>\n
I like the blue and yellow pairing of goldenrod and asters, but goldenrod also mixes well with the russet shades that are prevalent in autumn gardens. The wonderfully-named sneezeweed or helenium is a bit shorter than most goldenrods, and features daisy-like flowers in combinations of yellow, gold and burnt orange. The goldenrod\/helenium combo can be paired with tawny-colored chrysanthemums as well.\u00a0 The shorter mums are especially effective at camouflaging the somewhat ungainly stalks of the goldenrod and helenium.<\/p>\n
Small space or container gardeners need not be left out of the late September\/early autumn flower party. Breeders have created compact goldenrods to fill those pots or garden corners. I especially like \u2018Little Lemon\u2019, which grows only eight to ten inches tall and has a softer, more rounded look than some of its tall, gold relatives.\u00a0 \u2018Little Lemon\u2019 is, as the name suggests, lemon or butter yellow with cloud-like flower panicles.\u00a0 It could be used by itself in a pot or paired in a larger container with an aster of equal size like the blue-purple Aster cordifolius \u2018Wood\u2019s Blue\u2019.<\/p>\n
Of course any plant that is dubbed \u201cwildflower\u201d is vigorous enough to survive on its own in all kinds of semi-desirable settings and reproduce enthusiastically while doing so.\u00a0 That means that it may be weedy or invasive in a garden setting.\u00a0 Goldenrod is no exception to that rule.\u00a0 However, many of the cultivated varieties behave in a more civilized manner. Divide clumps every few years or whenever they seem to be exceeding their allotted spaces.\u00a0 Growing the plants in containers will keep things under control as well, especially if you watch for and grub out unwanted seedlings that may spring up in the vicinity of the container-grown plant.<\/p>\n
Like the biblical prophet who is not honored in his own country, goldenrod sometimes gets less respect here than in Europe.\u00a0 If you want to correct that and add beauty to your home landscape, seek out goldenrod at local nurseries and garden centers or at Bluestone Perennials, 7211 Middle Ridge Road, Madison, OH 44057; (800) 852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Florists call the tall, golden-topped stems \u201csolidago\u201d when they include them in expensive bouquets.\u00a0 I suspect that more than one person has glanced at one of those solidago-laden arrangements and said, \u201cIt looks just like goldenrod to me.\u201d And that person would be right. Solidago is simply goldenrod in fancy dress. Just as ancient alchemists … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[264,634,631,633,632],"class_list":["post-880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-asters","tag-fall-flowers","tag-goldenrod","tag-ragweed","tag-solidago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1473,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880\/revisions\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}