A borchure I co-wrote with Ryan Godfrey has just been published by the City of Toronto. The subject is goldenrod, and we’re encouraging people to rethink these wonderful plants. Along with photographs, we provide cultivation details for many goldenrod species for any garden conditions: dry sun, dry shade, rain gardens, wet spots, balcony pots, community gardens.
We wrote it because there’s a lot of misinformation out there about goldenrod. Too many people think it aggravates hay fever when ragweed, not goldenrod, is the culprit. Or they think that all species of goldenrod will “take over” the garden, when it’s only a few of the most common species (Canada goldenrod, tall goldenrod and giant goldenrod) that are prolific spreaders. Some goldenrods, in fact, are rare in the wild and others are quite compact and “tidy.”
Goldenrod needs a publicity agent, and I’m volunteering for the team.
There is simply no other plant known to support as many different species of pollinating insects as goldenrod! Entomologist Douglas Tallamy puts the number at 125 species of moths and caterpillars that are specialist feeders on goldenrod leaves. Sam Droge and Jarrod Fowler enumerate 39 species of native bees that have specialist relationsips with goldenrod pollen. And that’s not including the many, many generalist feeders on goldenrod nectar!
The late summer and fall blooms make goldenrod of crucial importance for monarch butterflies fueling for their migration and for bees (e.g., bumblebees provisioning the developing queen brood and as food for new queens preparing for hibernation).
And let’s not forget the brilliant blast of yellow, so welcome as the gardening season is waning.
For too long, goldenrod has been a victim of conventional gardening ideas that favour the “exotic” over the available! So let’s start welcoming this beauty into our managed landscapes.
