Roughleaf Goldenrod

The best native goldenrod for wet, moist, or clay sites. it handles conditions that would kill most goldenrods and delivers the same ecological punch in fall.

Roughleaf Goldenrod is the straight species version of 'Fireworks', a three-to-five-foot, late-blooming native goldenrod with wrinkled (rugose) leaves and arching sprays of golden yellow flowers from September into October. It's a workhorse for wet and moist sites: tolerant of clay, happy in rain garden edges, thriving along stream banks and in low meadows where drainage is poor. Plant it in a naturalistic mass in a wet area and watch it form an autumn colony that pollinators won't leave alone. Roughleaf Goldenrod spreads by rhizome more assertively than some goldenrods, which makes it ideal for large-scale naturalization but requires management in smaller borders. It's one of the best native plants for stabilizing moist, disturbed soil, and its late bloom window is ecologically critical for fall-foraging native bees and migrating butterflies. The seed heads that follow feed goldfinches and other small seed-eating birds through early winter.