Blue Stem Goldenrod

Yeah, I grow goldenrod in my garden, big woop, wanna fide aboud'it!  Like must Americans I grew up believing that goldenrod was the Autumn villain responsible for hay fever.  My mother wouldn't let it near the house.  Then I learned the truth and have been set free - free to appreciate a truly outstanding group of plants.  Let me share the truth with you my friends.  The true autumn villain is ragweed, but common and giant.  They are both inconspicuous green plants that produce huge quantities of wind borne pollen.  Goldenrod pollen is heavy and waxy and requires bees and other pollinators to transfer it from flower to flower. 
There are many species of goldenrod in our area and most of them are tricky to identify.  Canada Goldenrod is one of the most common and forms large clonal colonies, all growing for spreading rhizomes.  The charm of the Bluestem is that it forms distinct clumps without spreading vigorously throughout the entire garden. It does, however, self-sow readily.  The young plants are easy to transplant.  Even the mature plants move quite easily.  Unlike the terminal plumes of most goldenrod, Bluestem carries its flowers in the axils of its leaves all along the stem.  The result is a cluster of golden wands that dance in the breeze.  This is my specimen plant.  It is about three feet in every direction.  I have smaller plants in several places, but this beauty greets me as I pull in the carport every afternoon.

Another grows next to my Spikenard where its golden flowers mix with the wine colored berries, one of those serendipitous combinations that often happen in a garden.  While over a hundred insect species turn to the goldenrods for food, few mammals use it.  The thousands of seeds produced in the fall, however, are an important food for finches.  Solidago caesia is one of the few goldenrods commonly found in the woods rather than meadows.  The Bluestem is so named because the stems often have a bluish color that varies from plant to plant (caesia comes from the Latin for grey).  The first one I saw had stems nearly as blue as a robin's egg.