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Goldenrod - Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks'
Solidago is an interesting genus of plants. I'm looking at this lovely selection of Solidago
rugosa, they're the Goldenrods in common parlance. This thing is full of pollinators, I'm seeing
Bumblebees, honeybees, and there's some kind of hornet in the middle here. It's a wonderful
late season wildflower, also it's a great cut flower.
What I like about Solidago rugosa - fireworks is it stays fairly small. A lot of the Solidagos
are very aggressive plants, not only setting seed and spreading by the germination of seeds,
but also underground runners. They will colonize an area very quickly. Solidago rugosa - fireworks
is a little bit more restrained, it plays nice in the garden. They call it fireworks
for reason, these lovely sprays of golden yellow flowers pointing the same way on the
branch. That's a lovely, lovely trait on this particular variety of Solidago rugosa.
Another interesting aspect about Solidago the genus is that in the early part of the
twentieth century the rubber tree had gone into a serious decline because of a disease
that affected all of the rubber plantings. So they were looking for other sources for
rubber and Thomas Edison was working on cultural techniques and a breeding program to create
a Solidago that would provide a source for rubber. He ended up with a twelve foot Solidago
plant, and actually his friend Henry Ford delivered a Model-T to Thomas Edison with
tires made from rubber from Solidago!
In the genus Solidago there are over a hundred and twenty species, we looked at Solidago
- fireworks. I'm not sure which one this is, but I want to emphasize that there are different
sizes of plants. The Solidago rugosa - fireworks, rather small, two and a half or three feet
and some of the others species can get well over five or six feet tall. They are very
aggressive plants if you allow them to set seed, they will set seed all over your garden
the underground runners will also colonize an area very quickly. They do like full sun,
they will tolerate light shade. Solidagos are very forgiving as to soils they are tolerant
of just about the type of soil except the very boggy soils. They do well in dry locations,
they do will near road sides which makes me think that there are salt tolerant.
Solidago, a wonderful American wildflower.