To try to cheer myself up in mid November, I’m thinking about the beautiful yellow flames of showy goldenrod flowers scattered in the sunlit areas of a small savanna at Pleasant Valley. They were especially memorable that day because monarch butterflies were sipping nectar from the flower clusters, fueling up for their mid September journey south to Mexico.

I stopped to watch, tired from a morning of seed collecting, but determined not to let this magic moment escape. The butterflies weren’t wasting their time watching me as they worked the flower heads, one by one, in surprising numbers. And that gave me an advantage. Kathie was hiking in the Sierras and asked if I might help her tag monarchs while she was gone—if I saw any (the migration season had been slow to date). Luckily I remembered, and even had the net and official tiny round sticky tags in the back of my ATV. I simply waited until a butterfly landed, walked a few steps into the savanna, and swiftly swept the orange wings into the bottom of the net, over and over, missing only once (I brag). “Follow through, Susan,” my dad always said. It was a good time…

Some Characteristics of Showy Goldenrod

The blooms of showy goldenrod, Solidago speciosa, yield to fluff as the seeds mature in mid October. The 3-4 foot unbranched flower stems are frequently red and grow in clumps. The inflorescences contain many many bright yellow flowers arranged in an upright panicle.

Not only butterflies, but also various bees, flies, moths, ants, beetles, leafhoppers and moths love these blossoms.

Amanda and I always look forward to collecting the seeds of showy goldenrod. I don’t know the chemical that coats our fingers while gathering these seed heads, but it is so deep-down comforting to inhale. People have used root infusions of this plant to help with childbirth. There are other uses, which I’ll let you look up if you are interested.

The seeds are light in color and winged. According to Prairie Nursery, there are 105,000 seeds per ounce, and they price an ounce at $40.00 (that’s without the fluff, and they guarantee germination to a high percentage). The seeds are excellent food for local and migrating birds in the fall. We use the seed to help fill in areas where we have removed, or want to compete with, Canada goldenrod.

Showy goldenrod, given a rich fertile soil, lots of water, and no competition can grow into unbelievable giants! The rain garden at Wingra School in the Dudgeon Monroe Area in Madison proves this by example:

So, as I’m looking around these days at our barn full of bags and sleds of seeds to be sifted, weighed and made into mixes, I can’t help but think that a seed is a promise kept. The showy goldenrods kept their promise; we’ll keep ours as well—to continue the cycle of planting and harvesting.