This gleaming giant needs LOTS of room to breathe- because it has a BIG voice that really carries! Wild collected from a local Natural Lands preserve, it loves to have plenty of elbow room, and quickly spreads through its rhizomes. For this reason, it is best planted in your backyard meadow spaces- save your garden spaces for the daintier, more delicate-growing candidates. Boisterous, good-natured and, of course, golden, this goldenrod is an early and lively presence at the party and attracts tons of pollinators when it blooms as early as July and into August and September. Its bushy yellow flower clusters top long and robust stems that rise out of a mound of foliage.
Conditions: Full sun, medium to wet soil; tolerant of poor soil, clay, and drought.Size: 3-7' tall, 2-6' wide
Zone: 2 - 8
Wildlife Value: Flowers attract bumblebees, sweat bees, butterflies, skippers, hover flies, pollinating wasps, and several pollen specialist bees; seeds provide food for birds; larval host for dozens of butterfly and moth species
Photos: Jac Janssen